^KRY  OF  PRI/VCf^ 


jj  A. 


THE  WISE  MEN: 


tDI)ci  tl)eg  vont; 


^ow  tl)CB  came  to  ]ittu5akm. 


BY 

FRANCIS   W.^PHAM,  LL.D., 

l^OFESSOE  OF  MENTAL  PHILOSOPHY  IN  RUTGEES  FEMALE  COLLEGE, 
CITY  OF  NEW  YOKK. 


Behold,  there  came  "Wise  Men  from  the  East  to  Jerusalem, 
saying,  Where  is  He  that  is  bom  King  of  the  Jews?  for  we 
have  seen  his  Star. 


NEW  YORK: 
SHELDON    AND     COMPANY. 

1869. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  by 

SHELDON    AND    COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


STEREOTYPED    AT    THE 

Boston    Stereotype    Foundry,  ♦ 
No.  19  Spriag  Lane. 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

I.  Who  Were  the  Wise  Men? i 

II.  Meaning  of  "The  East," 23 

III.  Character  and  Religion  of  the  Persians,      .  59 

IV.  The  Magi, 95 

V.  Persians,  Chaldeans,  and  Hebrews,  .        .        .  107 

VI.  Daniel  and  the  Magi, 119 

VII.  Hope  of  the  Messiah  in  Syria  and  the  East,  139 

VIII.  Kepler's  Discovery, 145 

IX.  Astrological  Element  in  the  N^vjirative,         .  166 

X.  Inspiration  of  St.  Matthew,        .        .        •    T  •  ^75 

XI.  Summary, 1S6 


APPENDIX. 

I.     The  East  and  the  Far  East,        ....    199 
II.    Relation    of    the    Persian   and   the   Hebrew 

Religions 221 


THE    WISE    MEN" 


CHAPTER    I. 

WHO   WERE   THE   WISE  MEN? 

There  is  a  spirit  that  believes,  and  yet  inquires. 
In  this  spirit  let  us  inquire,  Who  were  those  Pilgrims, 
who,  when  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea,  in 
the  days  of  Herod  the  King,  came  to  Jerusalem,  saying. 
Where  is  He  that  is  born  King  of  the  Jews,  for  we  have 
seen  his  Star  in  the  East?  And  how  were  they  moved 
by  a  Star  to  undertake  their  long  pilgrimage  ?  —  a  pil- 
grimage no  less  instructive,  if  its  causes  were  better 
understood. 

St.  Matthew  calls  them  Magi.^  The  English  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  by  substituting  for  this  title  Wise 
Men,  leaves  their  secret  untold.  For  by  their  title 
St.  Matthew  tells  who  those  strangers  were. 

If,  in  some  historical  memoir,  we  find  it  written, 
that  in  the  reign  of  George  HI.  there  came  to  Lon- 
don, Brahmins, —  we  know  their  country  and  their 
character ;  we  know  they  were  natives  of  India,  and  of 

^  The  Vulgate  wisely  keeps  the  word. 


2  WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    MEN? 

its  sacred  caste;  know  their  complexion,  dress,  and 
manners,  their  religious  opinions  and  customs.  Of  such 
effect  is  St.  Matthew's  note  of  the  pilgrims  to  the  Holy 
City. 

He  opens  their  story  with  a  brief  introduction,  where 
one  great  fact — even  the  birth  of  Jesus  —  is  stated 
in  fewest  words,  where  some  historical  and  geographi- 
cal knowledge  is  taken  for  granted ;  and  it  is  in  keep- 
ing that  in  this,  his  description  of  the  strangers  is  by 
their  title,  only.  This,  too,  is  brief;  but  portraiture  in 
the  flowing  style  of  romance,  or  with  the  minuteness  of 
a  child's  history  book,  would  be  out  of  place  in  a  gos- 
pel. A  title  is,  more  or  less,  a  description.  To  call  men 
Mandarins,  is  to  describe  them  ;  and  thus  the  title  Magi 
here  stands  for  pages,  in  more  diffuse  and  less  suggestive 
writers ;  for  when  St.  Matthew^  calls  these  foreigners 
Magi,  he  tells  their  nation,  and  their  character.  Their 
title  introduces  them  as  Persians  of  the  sacred  or  priestly 
order  of  Persia. 

In  the  first  Christian  century,  the  title  Magi,  in  its 
oldest  sense,  was  thus  distinctive  and  honorable.  But, 
besides  this,  in  the  Koman  Empire  the  word  had  an- 
other meaning.  This  was,  in  part,  consequent  upon 
historical  changes  running  through  several  centuries ; 
but  these  may  be  stated  in  a  few  words.  Before  the 
rise  of  the  Roman  power,  in  the  days  of  the  old  Per- 
sian Empire  (B.C.  558-331),  the  Greeks  knew  the 
Magi  well,  as  the  impei;ial  priesthood  of  what  was 
then  the  great  Empire  of  the  earth.  After  that  Empire 
was  destroyed  by  Alexander  the  Great,  they  continued 


WHO   WERE    THE    WISE    MEN?  ^ 

to  know  them  well,  so  long  as  they  themselves  ruled 
over  Persia.  This  lasted  but  about  a  century ;  and, 
like  the  English  in  India,  the  Greeks  in  Persia  at- 
tempted no  radical  changes  in  religion.  Like  the  Eng- 
lish in  India,  the  Greeks  in  Persia  were  an  army  of 
occupation,  ruling  through  great  families  and  tribes, 
and  disturbino^  as  little  as  mioht  be  social  and  reliirious 
institutions.  Hence,  relatively  to  the  Persian  people, 
the  Magi,  under  the  Greek  rule,  were  much  as  they 
were  before  —  as  now  the  Brahmins  in  India  under 
British  rule  ;  and  they  were  so  under  the  subsequent 
Parthian  rule  in  Persia,  that  began  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  lasted  for 
a  little  more  than  two  hundred  years  after  it.  Under 
the  Parthians,  as  under  the  Greeks,  the  Magi  were 
degraded  from  that  high,  preeminent  place,  conspic- 
uous throughout  the  world,  which  they  held  in  the  old 
Persian  Empire ;  yet  they  must  have  been  treated  with 
consideration  by  the  Parthian  dynasty,  for  otherwise 
it  could  not  have  retained  its  power  so  long.  This  also 
appears  from  the  fact,  that  when  the  Persians  regained 
their  independence  (A.  D.  226),  the  Magi,  strong  in 
numbers  and  in  the  veneration  of  their  countrymen,  at 
once  took  the  same  place  in  the  later  Persian  Kingdom 
they  held  in  the  old  Persian  Empire.  The  Magi,  then, 
were  really  the  sacerdotal  order  in  Persia  from  the  fall 
of  its  Empire  (B.  C.  331)  onward  to  and  after  the 
Christian  era. 

But  this  w^as  not  well  known  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
within   which  Persia  was  never  included.      The   Par- 


4  WHO    WERE    THE   WISE   MEN? 

thians  were  jealous,  and  their  realm  was  almost  im- 
penetrable by  foreigners.  For  more  than  a  century 
before  the  Christian  era,  the  world  beyond  the  Tigris 
was  ever  becoming  less  known  to  the  Greeks  ;  and  it 
was  never  well  known  to  the  Romans.  Incessant  war 
restricted  their  armies  to  the  Euphrates,  or  to  the 
Tim'is.  Their  lemons  never  climbed  the  mountain 
ranges  that  defend  the  western  frontier  of  Persia. 
From  the  heights  of  the  Zagros,  the  Roman  Eagles 
never  looked  eastward  over  the  old  Persian  realm.  A 
cloud  of  Parthian  arrows  hid  Iran  from  the  West. 
Hence,  in  the  time  of  the  Parthians,  there  could  have 
been  but  little  popular  knowledge  of  the  internal  polity 
of  Persia  among  the  Greeks  or  the   Romans ;  ^  and  by 

^  How  ignorant  even  a  learned  Roman  might  be,  on  such 
subjects,  comes  out  in  the  strange  fables  Tacitus  recites  as  to 
the  origin,  morals,  and  usages  of  the  Jews,  —  as  when  he 
says  their  rites  were  impure,  and  that  an  image  of  an  ass 
was  set  up  in  the  Temple.  Hist.,  lib.  v.  2-5.  Yet  the  He- 
brew Scriptures  were  accessible  to  him  in  a  Greek  transla- 
tion, and  he  was  narrating  one  of  the  greatest  events  of  his 
time  —  a  war  with  the  Jews,  memorable  even  in  the  annals  of 
Rome.  If  such  was  the  ignorance  of  this  historian  as  to  this 
Eastern  people,  whose  territory  had  been  a  part  of  the  Em- 
pire for  four  generations,  what  may  not  be  presumed  to  have 
been  the  popular  ignorance  of  the  internal  polity  of  a  peo- 
ple much  farther  eastward,  and  on  whose  original  territory 
no  Roman  soldier  ever  set  foot. 

Diodorus  Siculus,  a  Greek  of  the  time  of  Caesar  Augus- 
tus, who  used  diligence  and  travelled  far  to  collect  a  mass  of 
materials  for  a  Universal  History,  in  a  fragment  of  its  34th 
Book,  shows  a  like  strange  ignorance  of  the  morals  and 
usages  of  the  Jews. 


WHO    WERE   THE    WISE   MEN.''  D 

them  the  Magi  almost  wholly  ceased  to  be  known  as 
an  existing  priesthood. 

In  the  Roman  World  it  was  the  common  opinion, 
that,  in  very  ancient  times,  magic  originated  with  the 
priests  of  the  Persians ;  ^  and  in  the  Koman  World, 
those  who  practised  magic  assumed  the  name  of  Magi ; 
the  adepts  in  the  black  arts  shrewdly  seeking  to  impress 
the  popular  imagination  by  taking  to  themselves  the 
countenance  of  the  name  of  an  order,  that,  at  the 
height  of  its  glory,  but  in  a  time  long  past,  had  been 
widely  honored.^  Thus,  in  the  two  prevailing  languages 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the-; Greek,  the  language  of 
letters,  and  in  tlie  Latin,  the  language  of  the  laws, 
the  word  Magi  came  into  common  use  in  a  sense  that 
was  related  to  the  distinctive  name  of  the  Persian  priest- 
There  were  Greek  colonies  that  long  held  their  own  be- 
yond the  Euphrates,  in  the  time  of  the  Parthians,  but  their 
relations  with  Greece  were  very  different  from  those  of  the 
Jews  of  those  regions  with  Judea.  They  were  estranged 
from  their  kinsmen  in  Greece  by  the  time  of  several  genera- 
tions, as  well  as  by  a  very  great  distance,  and  there  could 
have  been  but  very  little  intercourse  between  them. 

^  More  exactly  —  with  Zoroaster,  the  reputed  founder  of 
the  Persian  religion.  Of  him  Justin  says,  lib.  1,  sec.  1, 
*'  Dicitur  artes  magicas  invenisse  "  —  He  is  said  to  have 
found  out  magic.  Pliny  says  the  same.  See  hereafter,  page 
101. 

^  For  the  popular  Latin  use  of  the  term,  see  Tacitus,  An- 
nals, ii.  27-31,  for  an  abstract  of  which,  see,  hereafter,  p.  12  ; 
xii.  22,  where  an  Empress,  on  the  charge  of  interrogating 
Magi,  and  other  misdeeds,  was  banished,  unheard,  by  the 
Senate  ;  vi.  29  ;  xii.  59.  , 


()  WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    MEN? 

hood,  much  as  the  English  word  magician  is.  The 
new  sense  of  the  word  differed,  in  all  important  re- 
spects, from  its  original  meaning.  It  indicated  no 
priestly  function,  no  sacredness  of  character,  little  or 
nothing  as  to  nationality  ;  and  the  term  that  best  repre- 
sents it  is,  sorcerer.^  Those  whom  the  word  in  its  new 
sense  designated,  were  numerous  in  the  old  heathen  Em- 
pire of  Rome,  especially  in  the  Eastern  Provinces,  and 
in  the  Capital.  They  were  persons  of  impure  lives  and 
criminal  practices.  Such  were  the  Magi,  popularly 
known  to  the  Romans  and  to  the  later  Greeks  of  the 
West,  whose  writers  had  little  occasion  to  use  the  term, 
save  in  this  sense. 

This  popular  evil  sense  of  the  term  is  sharply  felt  in 
the  words  tliat  Arnobius,^  a  Christian  writer  (A.  D.  303) , 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  a  heathen,  who  scornfully  says 
of  Christ,  so  like  what  the  Jews  said  to  Him,  "  A  Ma- 
gus was  He  ;  He  did  all  things  through  unlawful  arts." 
St.  Jerome,^  near  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  says, 
*'  Common  custom  and  common  speech  treat  the  Magi 
as  malefactors."  And  most  of  the  fathers,  very  natu- 
rally, attached  to  the  word  in  St.  Matthew  the  signifi- 
cance it  had  in  the  world  around  them.^     Living  in  the 

*  It  is  thus  rendered  in  the  English  Bible.  Acts  xiii.  G.  8. 
^  Adversus  Gentes,  lib.  iii.  sec.  43  :  "  Magus  fuit :  clau- 

destinis  artibus  omnia  ilia  pcrfecit." 

^  Dan.  ii.  *'  Consuetudo  et  sermo  communis  Magos  pro 
maleficis  accepit ; "  but  in  the  same  place  he  refers  to  the 
use  of  the  word  in  a  better  sense. 

*  St.  Ignatius,  near  the  end  of  the  second  century,  Epis- 
tle to  the  Ephesians,  chap.  iv.  13,  says,  "  By  the  Star  all 


midst  of  an  encompassing  blackness  of  heathenism,  and 
abhorring  the  sight  of  its  dark  and  cruel  rites,  they  were 
readily  inclined  to  see  in  the  pilgrimage  to  Bethlehem 
the  triumph  of  the  Kingdom  of  Light  over  the  foul 
superstitions  and  black  arts  of  the  Kingdom  of  Dark- 
ness —  an  idea  in  which  there  unquestionably  was  an 
element  of  truth,  but  carried  to  the  extreme,  in  eon- 
sequence  of  their  confounding  those  Magi  with  the 
sorcerers  of  the  guilty  heathen  world  around  them. 

Thus,  alike  from  heathen  and  from  Christian  writers, 
the  term  Magi,  in  this  sense,  was  handed  down  to  the 
ecclesiastical  schools  of   the  Dark  and  of  the   Middle 

That  such  was  its  meaning  in  St.  Matthew,  was  also 
authoritatively  suggested,  and  seemingly  confirmed,  by 
the  fact  that  St.  Luke  used  the  term  in  its  later  signifi- 
cance. Thus  various  causes  long  combined  to  de- 
termine the  meaning  of  the  word  in  St.  Matthew  to  this 
sense. 

Such  having  been  the  causes  of  this  ancient  and 
abiding  interpretation,  we  need  not  be  surprised  at  its 
existence,  or  at  its  continuance.  Perhaps  the  discern- 
ment that  there  must  be  in  it  somewhat  of  error,  which 

magic  art  was  dissolved,  and  every  bond  of  wickedness 
disappeared.'*  St.  Augustine  (Serm.  200),  referring  to  the 
Magi  who  came  to  Bethlehem,  says,  "  Praevalet  —  im- 
pietas  in  sacrilegiis  Magorum  ;  "  which  may  be  freely  trans- 
lated as,  —  Impiety  characterized  the  sacrilegious  rites  of 
the  Magi. 

^  Abelard,  in  the  twelfth  century,  says  :  Is  there  indeed  one 


8  WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    MEN? 

appears  in  the  English  version,  and  in  various  ways  in 
modern  comment,  is  the  more  surprising ;  for  this  modern 
divergence  from  the  old  interpretation  does  not  justify 
itself  by  going  far  enough  in  the  right  direction  to  reach 
any  solid  ground  to  stand  upon. 

It  still  remains  to  prove,  —  what,  as  yet,  I  have  but 
asserted,  — if  proved  it  can  be,  that  the  ancient  opinion 
as  to  the  significance  of  the  word  in  St.  Matthew  is 
wrong,  and  that  he  used  it  in  its  original  sense.  If 
this  can  be  done,  the  nationality  of  the  pilgrims  is 
known,  and  there  is  some  hope  of  throwing  clear  his- 
torical light  on  their  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 

The  fact  that  St.  Luke  used  the  term  in  its  later 
sense,  seems  a  strono^  aro^ument  ao-ainst  this  ;  and  it  is 
a  correct  general  principle,  that,  if  one  Evangelist  uses 
a  word  in  a  certain  sense,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that 
another  Evangelist  uses  it  in  the  same.  But  the  word 
in  question  is  not  of  those  religious  terms  that  have 
one  unvarying  significance.  It  is  a  descriptive,  histori- 
cal epithet,  which  has  two  meanings,  that  are  quite 
distinct  ;^  and  St.  Luke  may  have  used  it  in  one,  and  St. 

who  is  ignorant  that  the  Magi  are  so  detestable  that  by  law 
not  only  they,  but  all  who  incline  towards  them,  are  put  to 
death?  Quis  enira  Magos  in  tautnra  detestandos  esse  igno- 
ret,  ut  non  soUiin  ipsos,  sed  etiam  quemlibet  ad  eos  decli- 
nantem,  lex  interfici  jubeat?  —  In  Epiph.  Dom.  Serin.  4. 

^  Some  surmise  that  the  good  character  of  the  word  Magi, 
as  that  of  some  other  words  has  done,  ran  down  into  a 
bad  one,  and  that,  in  St.  Matthew's  time,  it  was  in  a  state 
of  transition  ;  others,  that  it  was  then  a  general  name  for 
men  of  science ;   and,   that   so,   perchance,    the   Evangelist 


WHO   WERE   THE    WISE    MEN?  9 

Matthew  in  the  other.  St.  Luke,  though  born  in  Syria, 
was  probably  a  Greek.  He  was  a  man  of  letters,  and 
had  travelled  far  and  wide  in  the  West.  In  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  he  addressed  the  Roman  World,  and 
naturally  used  this  word  in  its  common  Roman  sense. 
St.  Matthew,  a  Hebrew  of  Galilee,  on  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  Empire,  who,  probably,  had  not  been  out  of 
Palestine,  and  who  wrote  with  immediate  reference  to 
his  countrymen,  may  as  naturally  have  used  this  word 
in  its  Persian  meaning,  which  we  shall  find  reason  to 
think  was  its  common  meaning  with  the  Jews  of  Pales- 
tine.    Besides  this,  the  facts  are  these :  to   a  sorcerer 

did  not  use  it  in  an  evil  sense.  These  are  only  surmises. 
Others  surmise  that  he  added  to  it  "  from  the  East,"  to 
avoid  the  evil  sense  in  the  word.  This  phrase,  as  will  bo 
shown  in  Chapter  II.,  is  one  of  the  proofs  that  he  used  it  in 
its  Persian  sense. 

The  critical  insight  of  the  modern  age  sees  that  the  in- 
terpretation by  former  ages  of  the  term  Magi  is  not  in  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  the  narrative.  Yet  the  almost 
unanimous  voice  of  its  comment  is,  that  who  they  were  that 
came  to  Jerusalem,  or  whence  they  came,  cannot  be  de- 
termined. It  is  not  worth  while  even  to  make  a  selection 
from  the  interminable  list  of  those  whose  writings  prove 
this,  or  to  attempt  to  specify  the  few  partial  exceptions. 
One  very  brief  citation  sums  up  too  general  a  feeling  —  "  It 
matters  little  who  they  were."  But  it  is  fair  to  suppose 
that  those  who  have  tried  to  expound  even  one  book  of 
Scripture  have  found  the  field  too  extensive  to  allow  of  the 
patient  research  required  for  the  solution  of  these  questions, 
and,  without  much  thouglit  about  the  matter,  have  had  to 
be  content  to  echo  on  the  current  opinion,  which,  on  the  face 
of  it,  seemed  probably  correct, 


10  WHO   WERE    THE  AVISE    MEN? 

St.  Luke  applies  the  term  ;  but,  as  if  aware  that  the 
word  might  have  a  national  sense,  he  adds,  the  man  was 
a  Jew,  and,  as  if  aware  that  it  might  have  an  honor- 
able sense,  that  he  was  a  false  prophet.^ 

St.  Luke's  use  of  the  term,  then,  does  not  decide 
that  St.  Matthew  did  not  use  it  in  its  national  sense  ; 
and  that  he  did  can  be  decisively  proved. 

The  presumption  is  very  strong,  that  the  term  Magi 
is  used  in  its  Persian  sense,  when,  in  the  first  century, 
a  Hebrew  writes  to  Hebrews  of  Palestine.  They  were 
much  nearer  to  the  Persians  than  were  the  Romans,  or 
the  Greeks.  In  a  former  day,  the  Persians  had  de- 
livered them  from  bondage  and  exile  —  a  deliverance 
recorded  in  their  sacred  books,  and  commemorated  by  a 
yearly  festival.^  Their  acquaintance  with  the  Persians, 
thus  begun,  was  never  afterwards  wdiolly  discontinued. 

^  Acts  xiii.  6.  "They  found  a  certain  Magus,"  —  Eng- 
lish translation  "  sorcerer."  Here  he  guards  his  use  of  the 
word  as  stated  above.  He  uses  it  the  second  time  in  verse  8, 
where  he  explains  that  it  is  his  translation  of  the  Arabic 
word  Elymas,  a  name  commonly  given  the  man,  or  assumed 
by  him  ;  and  said  to  be  expressive  of  wisdom,  as  the  EngUsh 
word  wizard  (wise-ard),  etymologically  considered,  is  also 
said  to  be.  So,  too,  the  idea  of  wisdom  in  a  dark  and  evil 
sense,  attached  to  the  later  meaning  of  the  title  Magus.  In 
speaking  of  Simon  the  Wizard  (Acts  viii.  9-11),  St.  Luke 
uses  terms  related  to  the  word  Magus  in  its  evil  sense,  though 
he  does  not  give  him  the  title. 

^  The  feast  of  Purim  commemorated  the  deliverance  re- 
corded in  the  Book  of  Estiier  ;  but,  as  the  Passover  recalled 
all  the  relations  of  the  Hebrews  with  Egypt,  so  the  Purim 
all  their  relations  with  Persia. 


WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    MEN?  11 

The  Parthian  jealousy  of  strangers  did  not  exclude  from 
Persia  the  Jews,  settled  there  before  their  rule  began, 
—  of  whom  were  the  Parthians  and  Medes,  who  came 
to  the  Pentecost.  There  were  great  numbers  of  He- 
brews in  Babylonia,  which  adjoined  Persia,  and  was 
then  a  province  of  the  Parthian  empire ;  and  those 
eastern  Jews  kept  up  with  their  kinsmen  in  Palestine 
an  annual  intercourse,  fostered  by  commerce  and  re- 
ligion. Thus  the  Hebrews  in  Palestine,  then,  had  much 
the  same  knowledge  of  the  Persians  as  those  earlier 
Greeks  had,  —  Herodotus  and  Xenophon,  for  exam- 
ple, —  who  used  the  term  Magi  only  in  its  national 
sense. ^ 

St.  Matthew  had  been  an  officer  of  the  customs  in  a 
town  situated  on  "  the  way  of  the  sea" ^  of  Galilee,  one 
of  the  roads  over  which  the  trade  of  Persia  reached  the 
Mediterranean.  Himself  the  earliest  of  the  Evangel- 
ists, he  gave  the  title  Magi  to  men  who  lived  in  the 
generation  before  him.  If  he  had  not  used  this  title  in 
its  Persian  sense,  he  would  have  said  so,  or  it  vt^ould 
be  implied,  or  be  plain  from  the  context. 

In  its  popular  sense  in  the  Roman  empire,  the  term 
was  dishonorable.     St.  Matthew^  uses  it  in  no  such  way. 

1  The  word  is  used  as  a  term  of  reproach  by  Sophocles, 
who  died  B.  C.  405,  It  is  applied  by  him  to  a  Greek 
soothsayer,  as  an  epithet  of  anger,  the  use  of  which  is  to  be 
traced  to  the  feehag  of  bitterness  towards  the  Persians, 
growing  out  of  their  wars  against  the  Greeks. — (Edipus 
Tyranuus,  387. 

2  Isaiah  ix.  1  ;  Matt.  iv.  15, 


12  WHO   WERE    THE    WISE   MEN? 

"^he  English  version  substitutes  for  it  the  honorable  term 
"Wise  Men."  This  a2:rees  with  the  tenor  of  the  narra- 
tive.  In  the  brief  style  of  St.  Matthew,  everything  is 
significant.  The  impression  given  by  this  great  master 
of  history,  is  the  very  truth  he  designed  to  give.  His 
emphatic  "Behold  !  there  came,"  the  sensation  it  made, 
and  all  else,  give  the  impression,  that  the  coming  of 
these  pilgrims  was  honorable  to  the  Lord.  Can  he, 
then,  at  the  very  outset,  have  given  them  a  bad  name? 
Can  he  have  pointed  them  out  as  of  the  crew  of  jugglers, 
fortune-tellers,  charmers,  diviners,  who,  throughout  the 
Roman  World,  assumed  the  ancient  name  of  the  priests 
of  Persia  but  to  disgrace  it ;  who  professed  to  invoke 
demons,  to  call  out  responses  from  the  dead ;  who 
joined  to  the  practice  of  the  black  art  the  craft  of 
poisoners,  and  pandered  to  the  fiercest  and  the  low^est 
passions  of  those  two  great  classes  —  the  credulous 
and  the  corrupt ;  impostors  of  a  vile  and  dangerous 
kind,  not  less  detested  in  Antioch,  in  Alexandria,  or  in 
Jerusalem,  than  when  in  Kome,  calling  themselves  by 
a  once  untarnished  name,  these  unhallowed  wretches 
drew  down  upon  them  the  vengeance  of  the  laws  ? 

To  prove  that  I  have  correctly  stated  the  character 
and  reputation  of  this  class  of  persons,  I  call  two 
witnesses  of  the  time  —  Tacitus  and  Philo  JudiBus. 
There  is  a  story  told  by  the  Latin  historian  that 
well  illustrates  the  Latin  use  of  the  term  Magi,  and 
the  character  of  that  class  of  persons  who  were  called 
so  in  Rome.  For  Tacitus,  the  story  is  very  fully  told  ; 
and  I  abbreviate  the  facts  of  a  writer  whose  words  it 


WHO   WERE    THE    WISE    MEN?  13 

is  not  possible  to  condense.  A  Senator  of  Rome,  who 
plied  the  trade  of  an  informer,  coveted  the  estates  of 
of  Libo,  a  rich  young  nobleman,  related  to  the  family 
of  Augustus  Caesar ;  and,  seeing  that  he  was  weakly 
credulous  and  rashly  ambitious,  he  allured  him  to  the 
predictions  of  the  Chaldeans,  and  Magorum  sacra,  — 
the  mysterious  rites  of  the  Magi.  His  slaves  were 
bribed  to  watch  him,  and  —  ut  infernas  umbras  car^ 
minibus  eliceret,  as  he  was  about  to  invoke  the  dead  — 
he  was  arrested  and  hurried  before  the  Senate,  where 
the  Emperor  Tiberius  presided  in  person.^  The  un- 
finished trial  was  adjourned  over,  and  that  night  Libo 
took  his  own  life.  But  the  prosecution  did  not  stop 
with  his  death.  His  estates  were  divided  among  the 
informers,  and  two  of  his  accomplices  in  unhallowed 
practices  were  executed.  One  was  thrown  down  the 
Tarpeian  Rock,  the  other  was  scourged  to  death.  The 
Senate  then  (A.  D.  16)  passed  a  decree — I)e  Mathe^ 
maticis  Magisque  —  concerning  the  Mathematici  ^  and 
the  Magi,  banisliing  them  from  Italy.  The  weight  of 
this  piece  of  evidence  is  not  in  the  use  of  the  word 
Magi  by  Tacitus,  but  in  its  use  in  this  decree  of  the 
Roman  Senate.     There  can  be  no  better  testimony  as 

^  Through  the  evidence  of  his  dealing  in  magic  arts,  the 
suspicion  of  a  wish  to  conspire  against  Tiberius  was  insinu- 
ated. In  this  was  the  venom  of  the  accusation.  The  scene 
reminds  a  little  of  Scene  iv.  Act  3,  Richard  III. 

^  These  Avere  astrologers,  often  called  Chaldeans.  Aulas 
Gellius,  i.  9,  says,  "  Vulgus,  quos  gentilitio  vocabulo  Chal- 
diEOS  dicere  oportet  Mathematicos  djcit,"  —  Those  who  ought 
tp  be  called  Chaldeans  the  people  call  Mathematici. 


14  WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    iMEN  ? 

to  the  Latin  use  of  the  term  Magi,  than  the  testimony 
of  the  Senators  of  Rome  embodied  in  this  law,  and  this 
hnv  goes  far  to  determine  the  character  and  reputation 
of  these  Magi,  not  only  in  Italy,  but  throughout  the 
Roman  World. 

The  testimony  of  Philo  supplements  this,  where  it  is 
deficient  on  the  last  point ;  and  is  even  more  important 
than  that  which  Tacitus  preserves,  as  it  differentiates 
these  Magi  from  the  Magi  of  Persia.  Philo,  called  Ju- 
daeus,  was  a  learned  Jew,  of  a  noble  family,  who  lived  at 
Alexandria  in  Egypt,  one  of  the  great  seats  of  Jewish 
learning.  He  was  the  chief  of  an  embassy,  sent  by 
his  countrymen  in  Judea  to  the  Emperor  Caligula,  at 
Rome ;  and  his  son  married  Berenice,  a  daughter  of 
King  Agrippa.  The  year  of  his  birth,  and  the  year  of 
his  death,  are  unknown  ;  but  he  lived  in  the  time  of 
Christ ;  for  he  was  a  vigorous  old  man  about  the  year 
41.  He  wrote  in  Greek,  and  most  of  his  voluminous 
writings  are  extant.  Providentially  there  is  in  them  a 
passage,  that  enables  us  to  understand  the  self-styled 
Magi,  and  to  compare  them  with  those  whose  name 
they  assumed.  To  receive  its  full  force,  we  must  con- 
sider it  in  its  connection.  Philo  treats  of  the  law  con- 
cerning murder,  as  laid  down  by  Moses, — explaining 
and  justifying  it.  After  a  page  or  two  on  the  crime  of 
murder,  he  says,  that  Moses  commands  that  poisoners 
and  magicians  ^  yhould  not  be  allowed  to  live  one  day, 

.  ^   ol  fxdyol  yat  q^aQuaxevrai-.      These  novrjooraioi^  persODS  of 
the  greatest  wickedness,  form  wilb  him  but  one  class  in  fact. 


WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    MEN?  15 

or  even  one  hour  ;  ^  and  then  to  give  a  clear  idea  of 
the  class  of  persons  whom  the  Mosaic  law  was  so  swift 
to  punish,  he  describes,  as  just  like  them,  a  class  of 
magicians  of  his  owm  time  ;  but  first,  he  carefully  dis- 
tinguishes their  magic,  from  magic  of  quite  another 
sort.  He  says,  "  The  true  magical  art,  being  a  science 
that  contemplates  and  beholds  the  books  of  nature  with 
more  acute  and  clear  percei)tion  than  usual ;  and  ap- 
pearing to  be  a  dignified  and  desirable  branch  of  knowl- 

^  These  are  laws  that  Philo  seems  to  refer  to.  I  give 
them  from  the  Greek  translatioa,  known  as  that  of  the 
LXX,  or  the  Septuagiut,  which  Fhilo  used.  The  reader  caa 
readily  compare  them  with  the  English  version,  Deuteron- 
omy xviii.  9-14.  "  When  thou  slialt  have  entered  into  the 
land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee,  thou  shalt  not 
learn  to  do  according  to  the  abominations  of  those  nations. 
There  shall  not  be  found  in  thee  one  .  .  .  who  uses  divi- 
nation, who  deals  with  omens,  and  augury ;  one  who  has 
in  him  a  divining  spirit,  an  observer  of  signs,  questioning 
the  dead.  For  every  one  that  does  these  things  is  an  abomi- 
nation to  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  for  because  of  these  abomina.- 
tions  the  Lord  will  destroy  them  from  before  thy  face." 

Leviticus  xix.  30-31.  Ye  shall  keep  niy  Sabbath,  and 
reverence  my  sanctuaries  ;  I  am  the  Lord.  Ye  shall  not 
attend  to  those  who  have  in  them  divining  spirits,  nor  at- 
tach yourselves  to  enchanters,  to  pollute  yourselves  with 
them ;  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  xx.  6.  The  soul  that 
shall  follow  those  who  have  in  them  divining  spirits,  or  en- 
chanters, I  will  set  my  face  against  that  soul,  and  will  de- 
stroy it  from  among  the  people.  Exodiis  xxii.  18.  Ye  shall 
not  save  the  lives  of  socerers.  Leviticus  xx.  27.  As  for  a 
man  or  woman,  whosoever  of  them  siiall  have  in  them  a 
divining  spirit,  or  be  an  enchanter,  let  them  both  die  the 
death.     Ye  shall  stone  them  with  stones  r  they  are  guilty." 


16  WHO   WERE   THE    WISE   MEN? 

edge,  is  studied  by  kings,  and  the  greatest  of  kings, 
and  especially  by  the  Persian  Monarchs ;  and  they  say, 
among  that  people,  no  one  can  possibly  succeed  to  the 
kingdom,  if  he  had  not  been  previously  initiated  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  Magi."^ 

Philo's  testimony  to  the  worth  of  the  science  of  the 
true  Magi,  as  a  kind  of  natural  philosophy,  is  important ; 
and  still  more  so  his  recognition  of  the  order,  as  then  ex- 
isting in  Persia,  and  intrusted  with  the  education  of 
its  Monarch.  In  continuation  of  the  passage  cited 
above,  Philo  goes  on  to  say :  "  But  there  is  a  certain 
adulterous  species  of  this  science,  more  properly  called 
wicked  imposture,  which  quacks,  and  cheats,  and  buf- 
foons pursue,  and  the  vilest  of  women  and  slaves. 
Professins^  to  understand  all  kinds  of  incantations  and 
purifications,  and  promising  to  change  the  dispositions 
of  those  on  whom  they  operate,  so  as  to  turn  those  who 
love  to  unalterable  enmity,  and  those  who  hate  to  the 
most  excessive  affection,  by  certain  charms  and  incan- 

^  In  what  he  says  here,  there  seems  to  be  something  of 
Oriental  extravagance.  By  kings,  he  may  have  meant  those 
petty  princes,  of  whom  there  were  so  many  throughout 
Asia  ;  as  in  Palestine,  for  instance,  Herod  the  Tetrarch  of 
Galilee,  whose  Court  was  at  Tiberias,  and  Philip,  whose 
Court  was  but  a  few  miles  off,  at  Ca3sarea  Philippi.  For 
Persian,  must  be  understood  Parthian,  and  by  the  greatest 
of  Kings,  Parthian  Monarchs.  Tlie  legend  on  some  of  the 
coins  of  the  Parthian  Kings  in  the  British  Museum  is  King 
of  Kings.  Apart  from  this  testimony  of  Philo,  it  is  very 
probable  in  itself,  that  the  Parthian  Princes,  like  their  Per- 
sian predecessors,  wore  educated  by  the  Magi. 


WHO    WERE    THE    WISE    MEN?  17 

tations,  they  deceive  and  gain  influence  over  men  of 
unsuspicious  and  innocent  dispositions,  and  so  they  fall 
into  the  f^reatest  calamities.  I  imasrine  that  the  Law- 
giver,  having  in  mind  such  things,  would  not  suffer  the 
punishment  due  to  poisoners  to  be  postponed." 

Then,  having  illustrated  the  law,  and  having  justified 
its  swiftness,  by  pointing  out,  in  his  own  day,  a  class 
of  persons  resembling  that  against  which  Moses  pro- 
ceeded with  sudden  severity,  he  ends  with  this  venomous 
comparison  :  "  If  we  only  see  snakes  or  other  venomous 
animals,  we  kill  them  without  a  moment's  delay,  before 
they  can  bite,  or  wound,  or  attack  us  at  all ;  taking  care 
not  to  expose  ourselves  to  any  injury  from  them,  by  rea- 
son of  our  knowledge  of  the  mischief  inherent  in  them  ; 
in  like  manner,  it  is  right  promptly  to  punish  these 
men,  who,  of  deliberate  purpose,  change  their  nature 
into  the  ferocity  of  untamable  beasts,  and  look  on  the 
doing  injury  to  as  many  people  as  they  can,  to  be  their 
greatest  pleasure."  ^ 

As  we  reflect  upon  this  chapter,  written  by  a  He- 
brew, near  the  time  St.  Matthew  wrote,  and  mark  the 
magicians  he  thinks  worthy  of  instant  death,  while  he 
commends  the  Persian  Magi,  can  we  doubt  to  which  of 

^  In  the  Greek  and  in  the  Latin  there  is  no  single  passage 
more  important  than  this  of  Philo,  On  Special  Laws,  Sects. 
17-18,  in  determining  how  St.  Matthew  used  the  title  Magi. 
I  do  not  know  that  its  bearing  on  this  question  has  been 
noted  before.  This  is  not  so  strange  as  it  might  seem.  The 
voluminous  writings  of  Philo  are  so  exclusively  allegorical, 
mystical,  and  didactic,  that  there  seems  to  be  nothing  else 
2 


18  WHO   WERE    THE    WISE    ^JEX? 

tlie?e  two  classes  St.  Matthew  would  have  us  think  the 
pilgrims  to  Jerusalem  belonged  ? 

Such  unhonored  Magi  as  Philo  describes  would  no 
where  have  received  the  honors  these  pilgrims  received 
in  Jerusalem.  Such  wandering  Magi,  telling  the  tale 
they  told  in  Jerusalem,  would  have  been  strangled  by 
order  of  Herod,  without  formality  or  delay.  St.  ]\Iat- 
thew,  then,  must  have  used  the  title  in  an  honorable 
sense;  and,  if  so,  then  in  its  national  sense;  for  it  is 
not  possible  to  separate  the  two. 

That  St.  jMatthew  did  use  the  title  Magi  in  its  hon- 
orable, national  sense,  is  established  beyond  all  doubt 
by  King  Herod's  reception  of  these  foreigners.  This 
old,  suspicious  politician,  half  crazy,  and  half  dead, 
admitted  these  strangers  to  private  audience  ;  and,  for 
them  he  summoned  together  the  Sanhedrim,  the  grand 
council  of  his  kingdom.  These  Magi,  then,  must  have 
been  nobles  —  and  this  might  almost  be  presumed  from 
tlie  costly  presents  they  offered  to  the  King  in  Bethle- 
hem—  nobles,  that  is,  in  the  Oriental  sense  of  the  term, 
nobility, — persons  in  royal  service,  familiar  with  dig- 
nitaries, men  of  high  consideration.  In  Persia,  at  the 
Court  of  the  Parthian  kings,  the  chief  Magi  were  so, 

in  them  at  all :  and  there  is  very  little.  So  that  few  have 
searched  tliem  through  for  the  grain  or  two  of  historic  gold 
tliat  might  be  hidden  in  the  mass  ;  and,  perhaps,  no  one  be- 
fore having  in  mind  the  first  verse  of  the  second  chapter  of 
St.  Matthew. 

Philo  is  the  most  redundant  of  writers.  I  therefore  abridge 
what  I  quote  from  him,  by  leaving  out  needless  repetitions. 


WHO   WERE    THE    WISE    MEN?  19 

and  there  only.  Their  standing  thus  with  the  Parthians, 
who  were  then,  next  to  the  Romans,  the  haughtiest  mili- 
tary power  in  the  world,  is  the  only  possible  historical 
explanation  of  Herod's  reception  of  these  foreigners. 
Age,  infirmities,  and  the  long  exercise  of  despotic 
power,  had  exasperated  his  naturally  strong  will  and 
high  spirit  into  a  moody,  ungovernable  temper,  that 
was  jealous,  suspicious,  and  irritable,  almost,  if  not,  at 
times,  quite  to  madness;  and  the  Magi,  making  the 
inquiry  they  did,  were  in  greater  danger  from  it  than 
probably  the}'  were  aware  of:  but  they  were  compara- 
tively safe,  if  they  came  under  the  safe-conduct  of  gen- 
erals commanding^  the  Parthian  armies  on  the  Tis^ris  or 
the  Euphrates  ;  not  even  the  Romans,  being  more  feared 
by  Herod  than  tlie  Parthians,  who,  in  a  raid  into  Ju- 
dea,  had  once  driven  him  from  his  Capital,  in  such  de- 
spair, that  he  attempted  to  take  his  own  life.^ 

Xo  writer  stamps  on  the  soul  a  more  clear  and  deep 
impression  of  the  reality  of  wdiat  he  describes  than  St. 
Matthew ;  yet  in  his  way  of  doing  it,  he  is  by  no 
means  so  circumstantial  as  St.  Mark;  and  for  him,  his 
narrative  of  this  pilgrimage  is  uncommonly  full  and 
minute.  The  number  and  character  of  the  facts  stated 
in  it,  show  that  his  knowledge  of  these  Persians  was 
very  complete.  Thus,  he  gives  their  feelings  at  one 
interesting  moment,  tlie  manner  of  King  Herod  in  their 
private  audience ;  he  names  the  gifts  they  offered,  and 
he  recites  their  -words.  It  is  natural  to  think  that  he 
who  knows  so  much  else  about  them,  must  have  known 

^  Josephus,  Antiq.,  lib.  xiv.  chap.  xiii.  7,  8. 


20  WHO   WERE   THE    WISE   MEN? 

to  what  country  they  belonged.  It  is  hardly  credible 
he  should  not  have  known  this,  when,  scarce  fifty  years 
before,  all  Jerusalem  had  known  so  well  who  those 
princely  foreigners  were,  to  answer  whose  inquiry,  its 
haughty  king  Herod,  summoned  the  council  of  his 
realm,  its  nobles,  scholars,  and  priests.  If  he  had  not 
known  who  they  were,  he  would  have  said  so.  If  he 
did  know  who  they  were,  he  would  tell  this.  If  he 
styles  them  Magi  in  the  national  sense  of  this  title,  he 
does  tell  this  exactly ;  and  in  a  brief,  yet  satisfactory 
way,  that  is  just  like  himself. 

That  St.  Matthew  did  know  the  country  of  the  pil- 
grims, is  certain  from  his  last  words  about  them,  —  "  they 
did  not  return  to  Herod,  but  departed  into  their  own 
country  another  way  :  "  —  not  the  usual  road  to  Persia 
through  Damascus,  but  probably  some  southern  way 
from  the  not  far  distant  city  of  Petra.  If  their  histo- 
rian had  not  known  their  country,  he  would  have  said, 
"  they  did  not  return  to  Herod,  but  departed  from  his 
kingdom."  The  phrase  he  uses,  closing,  as  it  does,  the 
history  of  the  Wise  Men,  implies  that  he  knew  their 
route  to  Jerusalem,  and  knew  they  went  home  by 
another ;  that  he  knew  their  country,  and  had  said 
what  country  it  was. 

There  is  other  evidence  of  it  to  be  stated  hereafter ; 
but  the  evidence  already  adduced  is  sufficient  to  prove, 
that  when  St.  Matthew  styled  the  pilgrims  to  the  Holy 
City  Magi,  he  meant  to  say,  and  did  say,  they  were 
Persians  of  the  priestly  order  of  Persia. 


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THE    EAST   AXD   THE    FAR    EAST.  23 


CHAPTER    II. 

MEANING    OF     "  THE     EAST." 

St.  Matthew  defined  his  use  of  the  word  Magi, 
by  adding  to  it,  "  from  the  Far  East."  But  the  same 
ill  fortune  has  followed  both  title  and  phrase.  The 
geographical,  like  the  historical  term,  is  commonly 
thou2:ht  to  be  sreneral  and  van-ue ;  yet  the  national  sense 
of  the  one  has  been,  and  it  may  be  that  the  definite 
meaning  of  the  other  can  be,  proved. 

In  the  Latin  and  in  the  English  Versions,  it  is  said 
the  Magi  were  "  from  the  East,"  and  in  the  same  sen- 
tence it  is  said  they  saw  the  Star  "in  the  East."  In 
this  there  seems  to  be  somewhat  of  needless  repetition. 
This  is  not  so  in  the  original  Greek.  The  word  for  the 
East  is  twice  there,  but  the  second  time  its  form  is 
chano^ed,  and  this  change  in  its  form  chamjes  its  sense. 
When  used  toi>:ether  o-eooraphlcallv,  the  first  of  these 
two  forms  must  point  to  some  country  more  distant  than 
the  second  does  ;  and  the  one  should  be  translated  the 
Far  East,  the  other  the  East.  Therefore,  in  English, 
the  verses  should  run  thus  :  "When  Jesus  was  born  in 
Bethlehem  of  Judea,  in  the  days  of  Herod  the  King, 
behold,  there  came  to  Jerusalem,  iNIagi  from  the  Far 
East,  savins^,  Where  Is  He  that  is  born  Kino^  of  the  Jews? 


24         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

for  we  have  seen  his  Star  in  the  East,  and  are  come  to 
worship  liim."^ 

**  The  East,"  and  the  "Far  East,"  then,  are  St.  Mat- 
thew's terms  ;  and  cannot  geography  and  history,  in- 
terrogated together,  answer  the  question,  What  did 
tlie  East  and  the  Far  East  mean,  in  the  first  century, 
in  Palestine  ?  They  can  ;  and  their  answers  are  addi- 
tional proof  that  the  Wise  Men  were  Persians  —  a  fact 
so  important  as  to  justify  all  patience  in  trying  to  estab- 
lish it.     They  also  tell  where  the  Wise  Men  were  when 

^  TOY  de  ' Irjuov  yei'vijOePTog  ev  ^ridlehi  ttj;  ' lovdulag  sr 
r^usQaig  'HQ(h8ov  lov  ^ucrileo):^  idov,  316.^01,  cctto  'Avarol^v 
nagsyevoPTO  fig  '^IpQOUolvua  leyovTeg.  llov  icniv  6  TP/delg 
^aaiXtvg  i(bv  ' lovdalop  •  sidojuev  yuo  avTOv  ibv  d-UiiQa  iv  jrf 
uirnToXrj^  xal  ri).doiiF.v  nQOaxwriaai  avrib. 

Anatole^  which  literally  means  the  risiug,  as  of  the  sun,  is 
the  common  Greek  word  for  the  Eastern  quarter  of  the  world, 
whether  of  the  earth  or  of  the  heavens.  In  classical  Greek 
it  is  used  in  this  sense  only  in  the  plural,  and  without  the 
article.  This  is  the  first  form  of  the  word  in  Matt.  ii.  1,  2, 
twice  rendered,  in  the  Latin  and  in  the  English  Version, 
the  East.  When  used  in  the  original  the  second  time  the 
word  is  in  the  singular,  and  has  the  definite  article.  This 
statement  is  sufficient  to  show,  even  to  those  familiar  only 
with  the  English  language,  that,  as  here  used  in  a  geograph- 
ical sense,  and  used  together,  the  last  form  of  the  word  must 
have  the  more  restricted  significance,  and  that  they  should 
be  translated  the  Far  East,  and  the  East.  The  Greek 
word  is  here  exactly  conformed  —  as  I  suppose,  by  a  local 
usage  peculiar  to  the  Hebraized,  colloquial  Greek  of  the  Jews 
of  Judea  —  to  the  two  Hebrc  .  words  3Iizrach  and  Kedem ; 
which,  when  used  together  in  a  geographical  sense,  liave 
just  these  meanings.  For  a  more  full  examination  of  thia 
usage,  see  Appendix,  I. 


THE  EAST  AXD  THE  FAR  EAST.         25 

they  saw  the  Star  —  a  new  fact,  that  throws  some  light 
on  the  hitherto  unknown  of  their  pilirrimanfe. 

It  is  true,  that  European  scholars  have  trusted  so 
confidently  to  the  feeling  that  St,  Matthew's  words,  on 
the  face  of  them,  are  vague,  that  they  have  not  seriously 
set  themselves  to  consider  whether  the  fact  might  not  be 
otherwise.  But,  of  this,  there  seems  to  be  an  explana- 
tion. The  geographical  use  of  the  phrases  the  East,  the 
West,  the  North,  and  the  South,  is  especially  Asiatic  and 
American  ;  that  is,  the  vast  areas  of  those  two  continents, 
and  the  monotony  of  their  geographical  features,  fitting 
them  for  dominions  more  extensive  than  those  of  the 
smaller  area  of  Europe,  diversified,  as  it  is,  by  seas 
and  gulfs  and  mountains,  compel  in  them  a  resort  to 
these  terms,  used  in  a  geographical  sense. ^  In  Euro- 
pean kingdoms,  where  they  are  less  needed,  and  seldom 
heard,  it  may  seem  they  can  have  no  well-established, 
exact,  geographical  significance ;  but  their  daily  and 
hourly  use  in  the  United  States  so  proves  they  can,  and 
so  elucidates  the  use  of  St.  Matthew's  terms,  that  some 
reference  to  it  is  a  fitting  preface  to  an  inquiry  into  their 
true  meaning. 

These  phrases  are  very  sure  to  come  into  use,  as 
names  for  great  areas,  distinguished  by  few  natural  or 

^  Thus,  "  the  Persian  word  Boom,  —  the  West,  —  may  al- 
ways be  considered  as  a  general  or  indefinite  name,  by  which 
Persian  authors  describe  the  provinces  west  of  the  Euphrates, 
to  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  and  the  Mediterranean/'  —  His- 
tory of  Persia  by  Sir  John  Malcohxi,  Minister  to  the  Court 
of  Persia.     Loudon,  1815,  vol.  i.  ch.  iv.  p.  56,  n. 


26         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

civic  features.  Thus  they  are  applied  to  unsettled 
prairies,  or  the  wilderness,  where  territorial  lines  are  not 
fixed  by  ranges  of  hills  or  the  course  of  streams,  but  are 
run  with  compass  and  chain.  As  the  territory  they  de- 
signate becomes  settled,  and  the  region  beyond  is  better 
known,  they  journey  on  with  the  pioneers.  In  less  than 
a  hundred  years  the  West  has  migrated  from  Western 
New  York  to  Michigan,  to  Illinois,  to  Wisconsin  ;  and, 
while  the  West  has  been  the  settled  country,  the  Far 
West,  ever  moving  on,  has  marked  the  parts  beyond. 

These  phrases  are  apt  to  become  popular  names  for 
large  regions  having  many  subdivisions,  as  seen  in  the 
phrase  —  "the  South."  Usually  they  point  out  some 
locality  more  remote  than  that  adjoining  the  one  in 
which  they  are  used.  They  exclude,  as  well  as  include. 
The  West  and  the  Far  West  do  not  cross  the  Rocky 
IMountains.  California  and  Oregon  are  known  by  their 
proper  names. 

The  locality  they  describe  need  not  be  exactly  in  the 
line  the  word  points  out.  In  the  same  place  their  mean- 
ing often  differs  in  different  periods  of  time ;  and  it 
differs  in  places  not  very  remote.  In  the  city  of  New 
York,  the  East  means  the  eastern  part  of  New  England. 
In  Boston  and  its  vicinity  "  Down  East "  is  the  familiar, 
colloquial  name  for  the  State  of  Maine  ;  yet  east  of 
Massachusetts  is  the  ocean,  and  Maine,  with  its  vast 
area  of  thirty  thousand  square  miles,  lies  to  the  north- 
east. As  the  road  from  Judea  to  the  East  at  first  ran 
due  north,  shunning  the  Desert  on  its  right,  so  does  the 
road  from  Massachusetts  to  the  East,  avoiding  the  sea. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         27 

It  traverses  part  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  ;  but  to 
this,  the  name  of  the  East  is  never  given  ;  and  the  name 
never  crosses  the  line  of  the  British  Provinces,  eastward 
of  Maine.  Throughout  a  territory  large  as  that  of 
Judea,  and  containing  as  large  a  population,  it  is  the 
local,  idiomatic,  common  name  for  a  restricted,  definite, 
yet  extensive  region ;  and,  in  this,  it  is  precisely  like 
St.  Matthew's  term  —  the  East. 

These  are  phrases  of  the  air,  rather  than  of  the  earth  ; 
yet  they  are  ever  used  much  in  the  same  way.  Once 
the  East  of  the  Romans  was  Asia  Minor,  with  its  many 
provinces.  As  their  dominion  widened,  it  journeyed 
with  it.  In  the  Augustan  age,  the  East  was  used  in  a 
restricted,  definite  sense,  as  the  Latin  name  for  Syria. 
Then  it  came  to  point,  at  times,  to  Parthia ;  but,  un- 
less the  known  world  to  the  eastward  was  manifestly 
meant,  it  excluded  India  ;  and  the  countries  it  denoted, 
at  different  times,  all  lay  to  the  south-east  of  Rome. 

As  bearing  on  the  Hebraic  use  of  such  phrases,  the 
main  fact  noted  is  this  :  —  though  in  the  same  place 
their  meaning  may  differ  in  different  periods,  they  may 
have  as  definite  a  geographical  meaning  as  any  names 
can  have,  and,  when  we  put  ourselves  in  the  circum- 
stances of  those  using  them,  their  use  seems  natural, 
their  meaning  sure.  The  conclusion,  then,  is,  that  St. 
Matthew's  terms  can  have  a  restricted,  definite  geo- 
graphical meaning. 

That  they  do  not,  is  a  notion  upheld  by  the  conjecture, 
that  he  chose  a  term  which  left  the  country  of  the  pilgrims 
in  doubt,  because  he  did  not  know  w^hat  country  it  was. 


28  THE   EAST   AND   THE   FAR   EAST. 

But  the  conjecture,  here,  should  be  the  exact  opposite  of 
this  ;  for,  most  assuredly,  the  fact,  supposed  unknown 
to  St.  Matthew,  was,  at  the  time  of  the  pilgrimage,  so 
well  known  to  all  Jerusalem,  it  was  a  fact  of  so  much 
interest,  so  easy  to  remember  and  so  hard  to  forget, 
that  there  is  every  reason  to  think  it  must  have  been  a 
part  of  the  history,  from  whatever  source  it  came  to  the 
Evangelist. 

More  than  this.  To  be  complete,  this  explanation 
of  St.  Matthew's  terms  must  include  the  words  he  puts 
into  the  lips  of  the  Magi ;  but,  then,  part  of  their  lan- 
guage becomes  inexplicable.  They  say,  the  Star  was 
seen  by  them  when  they  were  in  the  East.  Now,  they 
could  not  have  forgotten  where  they  first  saw  the  Star, 
and  it  is  not  possible  to  give  any  reason  why  they  should 
have  wished  to  conceal  this  in  vaofue  lanoruasfc.  In  what 
particular  city,  or  town,  or  village  they  were,  when  the 
Star  first  shone,  was  of  no  consequence.  If  they  stated 
this,  it  may  not  have  reached  their  historian,  or  might  not 
reappear  in  his  condensed  statement ;  but  the  name 
they  gave  to  the  country  where  they  were  when  they 
saw  it — assuredly,  this  was  a  definite  name. 

At  the  outset  in  tliis  inquiry,  then,  these  facts  are  es- 
tablished ;  — the  two  Geographical  terms  in  the  narrative 
may  have  a  restricted,  definite  meaning  —  one,  probably, 
the  other,  certainly,  has  ;  and  it  will  hereafter  appear, 
that,  if  the  meaning  of  tlie  latter  is  determined,  the 
meaning  of  the  former  at  once  becomes  definite  and 
clear. 

St.  Mattliew's  words  arc  of  the  place ;  and  he  who 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         29 

would  know  what  they  mean,  must  look  for  the  East  and 
the  Far  East  with  the  eye  of  a  Hebrew  in  Palestine. 
The  country  east  of  Palestine  lies  more  than  a  thousand 
leagues  away ;  but  its  great  features  are  so  simple  and 
unvarying  in  their  vastness,  that  it  is  possible  to  bring 
them  before  the  mind's  eye,  with  a  clearness  sufficient 
for  this  purpose,  even  without  the  aid  of  the  map.  Be- 
yond the  Jordan  there  is  a  high  ridge  of  land  that  forms 
tlie  purple  background  of  every  eastern  prospect  from 
Jerusalem,  and,  indeed,  from  all  of  Western  Palestine.^ 
Everywhere  of  much  the  same  height,  running  north 
and  south,  parallel  with  the  Jordan  and  with  the  sea  of 
Sodom,  it  is  one  and  the  same  range,  whether  known  as 
the  heights  of  Moab,  of  Ammon,  or  of  Gilead.  Let  us 
suppose  ourselves  standing  anywhere  upon  these  hills, 

^  "  Who  that  has  ever  travelled  in  Palestine  has  not 
longed  to  cross  the  Jordan  valley  to  those  mysterious  hills, 
which  close  every  eastward  view  with  their  long  horizontal 
outline,  their  overshadowing  height,  their  deep  purple  shade  ?  " 
— Stanley's  Egypt  and  Palestine,  chap.  viii.  sec.  1. 

"  The  view  looking  back  on  Bethlehem,  as  you  ascend  the 
northern  hills,  is  exceedingly  beautiful ;  to  the  east  it  is 
bounded  by  the  long,  unbroken  ridge  of  the  mountains  of 
Moab." — Lord  Lindsay,  letter  iii.  p.  242. 

''  As  seen  from  Mount  Olivet,  the  eastern  mountains 
stretch  off  in  a  long,  even  ridge,  apparently  unbroken.  They 
present  to  the  view  no  single  peak  or  separate  summit." 
—  Robinson,  vol.  i.  sec.  6,  p.  236. 

Stanley  says,  ''  I  was  not  prepared  for  their  constant 
intermino-lin'y  with  the  views  of  Jerusalem  itself.  From  al- 
most  every  point  there  was  visible  that  long,  purple  wall,  ris- 
ing out  of  its  unfathomable  depths."  —  Chap.  iii.  sec.  3,  p.  166.. 


30         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

and  srazins:  towards  where  the  sun  rises.  As,  from 
some  headhmd,  we  look  out  far  over  the  sea,  till  the 
level  line  of  the  waters  is  lost  in  the  horizon,  so  here, 
we  look  out  upon  an  expanse,  undulating  only  as  the 
sea  when  the  winds  sleep.  For  six  hundred  miles  to 
the  eastward  it  is  one  unbroken  level, — even  from 
these  Syrian  hills  to  the  Persian  hills.  But,  in  this  vast 
plain,  there  is  a  division  that  is  to  be  remarked  and  re- 
membered. That  part  of  it  farthest  from  us  is  fertilized 
by  two  rivers  ;  that  part  before  us  is  a  waterless  desert. 
Of  the  Great  Sand  Ocean  of  the  world,  known  in 
Africa  as  the  Zahara,  in  Asia  as  Arabia,  through  which 
the  Nile  marks  a  line  of  green,  out  of  which  the  pin- 
nacles of  Sinai  rise,  and  into  which  the  high  land  of 
Palestine  sinks  down  on  the  South  and  on  the  East, 
the  expanse  before  us  is  the  north-eastern  Gulf.  To  the 
north-east  of  us,  this  sandy  waste  narrows  to  a  point 
between  the  continuance  of  the  ridge  we  stand  upon  and 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Euphrates  ;  which  river,  from 
that  point,  puts  a  limit  to  this  desert  country.  From 
the  adjacent  Syria,  the  region  before  us,  and,  especially, 
more  to  the  north-east,  where  it  terminates  in  a  grassy 
plain,  is  sometimes  called  the  Syrian  Desert ;  but  all 
geographers  hold  it  to  be  an  offshoot  of  Arabia.^     And 

^  *'  A  line  drawn  from  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the 
head  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  would  seem  the  natural  boundary 
of  Arabia  were  it  not  for  the  vast  desert  which  stretches  to 
the  uortliward,  and  is  of  a  character  so  decidedly  Arabian, 
that  it  has  always  been  referred  to  that  part  of  Asia.  .  .  . 

"The  remainder  of  Arabia  consists  of  that  outer  portion, 


THE    EAST   AND   THE   FAR   EAST.  31 

it  is  the  very  Arabia  of  our  imagination.  Nowhere  are 
the  strange  features  of  that  peculiar  country  better  seen. 
There  sunburnt  Arabs  only  roam.  In  that  great  and 
terrible  wilderness  the  sand-storm  rises,  the  deadly  si- 
moom blows. ^  No  road  ever  did  or  ever  will  cross  its 
shifting  sands.  The  only  traveller  that  ever  passed 
through  it  was  Nebuchadnezzar,  who,  hearing  in  Pales- 
tine that  his  father  was  dead  in  Babylon,  and  fearing 
what  might  chance  were  he  long  absent  from  his  capital, 
sent  his  captives  and  his  army  north,  to  shun  this  desert 
on  their  right,  and  thence  circuitously  home ;  while, 
with  a  few  guards,  Arab  guides,  and  swift  dromedaries, 
he  struck  straiglit  across  this  pathless  desert.^ 

which,  in  the  form  of  a  triangle,  extends  along  the  border 
of  Palestine  and  Syria,  and  the  course  of  the  Euphrates.  In 
its  central  parts,  this  is  the  most  completely  desert  tract  of 
all  Arabia."  —  Murray's  Encyclopedia  of  Geography,  part 
iii.  b.  ii.  ch.  iii.  sec.  1. 

^  In  this  desert  "  sand-storms  are  frequent,  and,  at  times, 
the  baleful  simoom  sweeps  across  the  entire  tract,  destroying 
with  its  pestilential  breath  both  men  and  animals."  — Raw- 
linson's  Five  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  ch.  i.  p.  32. 

^  "  Having  committed  to  certain  of  his  friends  the  con- 
veyance to  Babylon  of  the  captive  Jews,  Phoenicians,  and 
those  of  the  Egyptian  nations,  together  with  the  bulk  of  his 
army,  its  ammunitions  and  provisions,  he  went  himself 
liastily,  accompanied  with  a  few  others,  over  the  desert,  and 
came  to  Babylon."  —  Part  of  a  fragment  of  the  Chaldean 
History  of  Bcrosus,  preserved  in  Josephus,  Antiq.  b.  x. 
ch.xi.  1.  The  Avhole  reads  somewhat  like  a  summary  of 
the  exploits  of  Nebuchadnezzar ;  and  it  is  placed  by 
Josephus  after  his  own  mention  of  the  life  and  death  of 
that  monarch. 


32  THE    EAST   AND   THE    FAR   EAST. 

There  are  few  contrasts  on  the  earth's  surface  more 
striking  than  that  between  this  sandy  waste  and  the 
fertile  land  beyond  —  a  contrast  owing  to  the  absence 
of  the  water  element  from  the  one,  and  its  presence  in 
the  other,  where  the  broad  flowing  Euphrates  furrows 
the  plain,  and  the  swift  Tigris  ^  hurries  on  to  mingle  its 
waters  with  those  of  the  Euphrates.  Flowing  from 
fountains  near  together  in  Armenia  far  to  the  north- 
east of  us,  these  rivers  seek,  at  first,  the  Mediterranean 
and  Caspian  Seas,  but  checked  by  mountain  ranges  in 
their  westward  and  eastward  windings,  they  bend  south- 
ward, pour  their  life-giving  waters  through  the  eastern 
part  of  this  flat  country  between  Syria  and  Persia,  and 
make  that  portion  of  it  almost  as  fertile  as  the  land  of 
Egypt. 

The  Plain  of  the  Two  Kivers  begins  at  the  base  of  the 
Armenian  highlands,  and  runs  from  thence  south-east- 
ward, nearly  seven  hundred  miles,  to  the  Persian  Gulf. 
The  northern  half  of  it  is  a  fine  tract  of  land,  though 
some  small  part  of  it  is  sterile,  if  not  desert.^  Its 
north-western  section  is  diversified  by  spurs  from  the 
mountains ;  and  a  little  below  its  centre,  it  is  almost 
crossed,  east  and  west,  by  a  low,  narrow,  steep  lime- 
stone ridge,  called  the   Sinjar  Hills.     The  Highlands, 

^  Philo  Judaeus  has  this  curious  remark  :  "  The  Tigris  is 
a  very  cruel  and  mischievous  river  ;  and  so  the  Magi  bear 
witness,  who  have  found  it  to  be  of  a  character  quite  different 
irom  the  nature  of  other  rivers."  —  Questions  and  Answers, 
No.  13. 

^  Hence  Xenophon  called  this  part  of  it  Ai-abia,  —  "a  plain 


THE   EAST  AND   THE   FAR  EAST.  33 

together  with  a  part  of  the  Plain, ^  were  known  to  an- 
cient geographers,  as  Mesopotamia.^ 

The  southern  half  of  the  Plain  is  about  three  hun- 
dred miles  in  len^^rth,  with  an  averao^e  breadth  of  about 
one  hundred  miles.  Its  level  surface  is  broken  only  by 
frequent  mounds  that  mark  where  temples  or  cities 
stood.  Its  alluvial  soil  is  of  inexhaustible  fertility. 
This  southern  half  of  the  Plain  was  known  as  Baby- 
lonia.    It  lies  due  east  from  the  Holy  Land. 

Beyond  the  Tigris  soon  rise  the  ranges  of  the  Zagros 
of  old,  now  of  Kurdistan  —  the  first  mountains  east- 
ward of  us.  These  are  the  outposts  of  the  elevated 
Plateau  of  ancient  Persia,  that  stretches  far  towards 
the  rising  sun.  Eastward  of  us,  then,  there  are  three 
well  defined  regions  —  the  Desert,  the  Southern  Plain 
of  the  two  rivers,  and  Persia.  So  little  of  the  world 
beyond  these  was  known  to  the  Hebrews,  that  we  have 
only  these  three  to  consider  in  determining  what  region 
they  called  the  East,  and  what  the  Far  East. 

One  fact,  very  important  to  our  inquiry,  clearly  ap- 

even  as  the  sea,  and  full  of  wormwood  ;  if  any  other  kind 
of  shrubs  or  reeds  grow  there,  they  all  had  an  aromatic 
smell,  but  no  trees  were  seen."  — Anabasis,  b.  i.  5. 

^  Whose  southern  limit  may  be  said  to  have  been  where  a 
rampart,  called  the  Median  Wall,  crossed  nearly  from  river 
to  river,  from  about  34°  north  latitude  on  the  Tigris,  to  33^ 
30',  on  the  Euphrates. 

^  The   literal   meaning  of  Mesopotamia  is,  "  between  the 

rivers."     Rawlinson,  in  his  Five  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  eh.  i., 

gives   to  the   word  this   vast  compass.     So  too  in    Smith's 

Diet.,   Art.   *'  Mesopotamia,"   if  we  look  to  the   name,   he 

3 


34        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

pears  from  the  Scriptures  of  the  Hebrews.  They  were 
always  familiar  with  the  use  of  the  phrase  "  the  East  "  in 
a  restricted,  definite,  geographical  sense.  The  geo- 
graphical meaning  of  the  term  very  naturally  differed 
in  different  periods  of  their  long  life  of  fifteen  hundred 
years  in  Palestine.  To  trace  out  these  differences,  may 
be  neither  useless  nor  uninteresting  to  those  who  would 
intelligently  read  the  ancient  records  of  our  holy  re- 
ligion. 

The  Israelite  named  the  four  quarters  of  the  world 
from  their  position  relative  to  himself,  as  he  stood  facing 
eastward.     These  names  are  all  found   in   this  verse  of 

says,  "  We  must  regard  Mesopotamia  as  the  entire  coun- 
try between  the  rivers."  He  describes  all  this,  but  then 
says,  "  it  seems  proper  to  append  a  more  particular  ac- 
count of  that  region  vvliich  bears  the  name,  par  excellence^ 
both  in  Scripture  and  in  classical  writers."  Of  this  he  makes 
the  Sinjar  Hills  the  southern  limits  ;  and  refers  to  Ptolem. 
Geograph.,  v.  18;  Strabo,  ii.  1,  29  ;   Arrian,  iii.  7. 

To  Aram-naharim,  which  is  Mesopotamia  in  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  he  has  to  give  the 
same  vast  compass.  But  the  literal  meaning  of  this  is  "  the 
highlands  of  the  rivers  ;  "  and  all  the  places  located  in  this 
tract  were  in  the  uplands.  Gen.  xxiv.  10  ;  Deut.  xxiii.  4  ; 
Judges  iii.  8-10.  With  time,  it  no  doubt  lost  its  descrip- 
tive meaning,  and  was  used  as  a  proper  name  ;  but  there  is 
no  probability  that  it  was  ever  extended  clear  down  to  the 
gulf,  a  distance  of  seven  hundred  miles  from  the  highlands. 
As  the  mountaineers  came  to  possess  some  portion  of  the 
plain,  the  name  given  to  their  country  woukl  embrace  such 
a  section  of  it ;  and  this  would  explain  the  rendering  it  iu 
Greek  by  Mesopotamia. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAK  EAST.         35 

the  book  of  Job  :  ^  "  I  go  forward,  —  (Kedem,  before 
—  to  the  East),  but  he  is  not  there;  and  backward  (to 
the  West) ,  but  I  cannot  perceive  Him  ;  on  the  left 
hand  (to  the  North),  where  he  doth  work,  but  I  cannot 
behold  Him  ;  He  hideth  himself  on  the  right  hand  (to 
the  South),  that  I  cannot  see  Him." 

It  was  almost  inevitable,  that  at  first  the  Israelite 
should  give  the  name  Kedem  (before),  the  East,  to 
the  vast  area  of  the  desert,  which,  undiversified  by 
ranges  of  hills,  or  the  course  of  streams,  lay  before 
him  as  he  looked  eastward  from  the  heights  beyond  the 
River  Jordan.  This  broad  region  had  no  civic  or  nat- 
ural features  from  which  to  name  it ;  and  Kedem,  the 
East,  became  its  name,  even  in  the  days  of  the  patri- 
archs. Abraham  sent  the  sons  of  his  concubines 
"eastward  into  the  east  country  ;  "^  that  is,  far  into  the 
desert. 

The  East 'was,  then,  the  country  of  wandering  Arabs  ; 
and,  in  times  earlier  than  the  civic  splendors  beyond  the 
Euphrates,  the  Arabs  were  found  on  the  farther  side  of 
that  river.  Those  irrepressible  wanderers  of  the  desert 
would  get  out  of  their  bounds.  With  their  hand 
against  every  man,  they  ever  loved  to  make  raids  to  the 
west,  over  the  Jordan,  into  the  green  plain  of  Esdra- 
elon  ;  and  to  make  raids  to  the  east,  over  the  Euphrates, 
into  the  garden  beyond.  They  did  so  when  tlie  coun- 
try on  either  side   of  their  sands  w^as  thinly  peopled ; 

^  Job  xxiii.  8 J  9.  ?  Gen.  xxv.  6.. 


36         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

and  they  do  so  now,  when  the  strength  of  Syria  and  of 
Assyria  is  alike  decayed.  The  depth  of  the  solitude 
that  was  to  be  in  Babylon  was  painted  by  this  touch,  — 
"  the  Arabian  shall  not  pitch  his  tent  there  ;  "  ^  even  the 
wild-eyed  Bedouins,  who,  unhindered  and  unharmed, 
will  cross  the  Euphrates,  shall  shun  the  haunted  mound 
of  Babylon. 

The  country  of  wandering  tribes  being  then  the 
East,  with  them  the  phrase,  at  times,  crossed  the  Eu- 
phrates. Hence  the  kinsmen  of  Abraham,  who  seem 
to  have  dwelt  permanently  on  the  farther  side  of  that 
river  in  tents,  are  called  "children  of  the  East."^ 

The  use  in  Jacob's  family  of  the  East,  for  the  desert, 
continued  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  because  the  Arabian 
desert,  that  bordered  Canaan  on  the  east  and  on  the 
south,  also  bordered  Egypt  on  the  east.  Thus  the 
Israelites  carried  down  with  them  into  Egypt  the  name 
of  the  East  for  the  desert,  kept  it  while  there,  and 
brousrht  it  back  with  them.  Alike  in  Goshen,  and  in 
Canaan,  this  name  for  the  desert  answered  to  various 
conditions  in  which  phrases  taken  from  the  quarters  of 
the  horizon  are  used  geographically.  It  was  one  vast, 
monotonous  expanse  in  which  there  were  no  cities,  no 

^  Isaiah  xiii.  20. 

2  Gen.  xxix.  1  ;  English  version  — people.  Balaam,  also, 
standing  on  the  hill  of  Moab,  says  he  came  there  from  the 
mountains  of  the  east.  Pethor,  Balaam's  town,  was  by  the 
Euphrates ;  but  he  may  have  used  tlie  term  so  casually, 
that  no  geographical  usage  can  be  inferred  from  it.  Num. 
xxiii.  7 ;  xxii.  5  ;  Deut.  xxiii.  4. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         37 

hills,  no  rivers.  It  had  divitiions  well  known  within  the 
black  hair-tents  of  the  Arabs  ;  but  to  the  land-tilling 
Israelites,  they  had  as  little  of  difference  as  their  tribes, 
whom  they  grouped  together  as  "children  of  the 
East."^  The  Israelites  dwelt  four  hundred  years  and 
more  in  Egypt ;  for  the  time  of  one  generation  they 
wandered  in  the  desert  to  the  east  of  Egypt,  and  south 
of  Canaan ;  and  when  they  came  up  out  of  it  into 
Canaan,  they  could  have  had  little  knowledge  of  the 
same  desert,  as  it  stretched  far  eastward  of  the  Holy 
Land.  But  two  tribes  and  a  half  loved  the  free  life  of 
herdsmen  better  than  fenced  cities  or  ploughed  fields, 
and  would  dwell  beyond  Jordan  in  tents. ^  Under  the 
grand  old  oaks  of  that  high  table  land,  and  over  its  rich 
pastures,  fed  their  "very  great  multitude  of  cattle," ' 
and  down  its  eastern  slope  into  the  plain,  till  the  pas- 
ture dried  up  into  the  wilderness.  The  two  tribes  and 
a  half  soon  knew  the  desert  before  them ;  for  between 
them  and  their  Arab  kinsmen  there  was  no  great  un- 
likeness  of  manners  or  of  lang^uasfe.^ 

^  Judges  vi.  7,  8,  33  ;  vii.  12.  In  the  wandering,  the  Is- 
raelites became  well  acquainted  with  the  Amalekites  and 
the  Midianites  ;  and,  hence,  the  sacred  writers,  though  once 
(Judges  viii.  10)  calling  them  children  of  the  East,  give 
them  their  own  names  —  illustrating  how  general  are  super- 
seded by  proper  names. 

^  Joshua  xxii.  7,  8. 

^  Num.  xxxii.  1. 

*  Gideon's  venturing  by  night  in  among  the  host  "  of  the 
Midianites,  and  the  Amalekites,  and  all  the  children  of  the 
East,"  to  "  hear  what  they  say,"  seems  to  prove   that  the 


38         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

In  after  years,  when  the  galleys  of  King  Solomon 
liad  rowed  down  the  Red  Sea  into  the  Indian  Ocean 
and  up  the  Persian  Gulf,  the  whole  of  the  great  Ara- 
bian Desert  was  known  to  the  children  of  Israel.  We 
have  seen  that  imperfect  knowledge  of  a  country  is 
usually  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  geographical  use 
of  the  phrases,  the  East,  the  West,  the  North,  and  the 
South ;  and,  as  knowledge  of  the  country  to  which 
such  a  name  is  given  increases,  this  general  name  often 
gives  place  to  a  more  specific  one.  It  is  in  harmony 
with  this  that,  when  the  desert  became  known  to 
Israel  in  all  its  length  and  breadth,  it  received  a  proper 
name.  In  the  book  of  the  Kings  it  is  called  Arabia,^ 
—  a  name  unknown  to  earlier  Scripture,  and  perhaps 
coming  from  the  people  beyond  the  Euphrates ;  and 
it  is  called  so  by  Isaiah,^  Ezekiel,^  Jeremiah,*  and 
Nehemiah  ;*  in  the  book  of  Chronicles  ;  ^  in  the  books  of 
the  Maccabees,^  and  in  the  New  Testament.^ 

The  old  name  gave  place  to  the  new  for  these  reasons 
also  :  all  Arabia  is  so  like  itself,  and  so  unlike  any 
other  country;  the  Arabs,  so  like  themselves  and  so 
unlike  any  other  people,  that  Arabia  can  have  but  one 
name  with  those  acquainted  with  it.  When  looked 
at  as  a  whole,  it  seems  to  lie  to  the  south  of  Palestine ; 

Israelites  then  could  understand  the   speech  of  the  desert- 
tribes. —  Judges  vii.  9-15. 

^  1  Kings  X.  15.  ^Neh.  iv.  7. 

2  Isa.  xxi.  13.  «  2  Chron.  ix.  14. 

^  Ezok.  xxvii.  21.  ^  2  Mace.  xii.  2. 

"^  Jer.  iii.  2.  ^  Acts  ii.  11. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         39 

in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  the  Queen  of  Sheba  is  the 
Queen  of  the  South  ^  —  and  this  complete  view  of  it  for- 
bade calling  part  of  it  the  East. 

Thus,  the  old  name  for  the  desert  would  not  long 
dwell  side  by  side  with  its  new  name ;  '^  and  about  the 
time  of  this  chansfe,  new  relations  beo^an  between  the 
Hebrews  and  nations  rising  to  power  beyond  the  desert, 
which  make  it  probable  that  the  name  "the  East"  would 
journey  farther  onwards,  and  cross  the  Euphrates  into 
Babylonia.^ 

As  said  before,  it  is  natural  for  Asiatics  to  use  "the 
East,"  and  its  kindred  phrases,  geographically,  and, 
though  the  territory  of  the  Hebrews  was  small,  and 
on  the  edge  of  Asia,  their  Scriptures  abundantly  illus- 

^  Matt.  xii.  42. 

2  It  might  for  a  time.  See  Isaiah  xi.  14 ;  Jeremiah 
xlix.  28. 

^  As  I  end  this  inquiry  as  to  the  oldest  Hebrew  use  of  the 
phrase  "  the  East,"  I  would  note  a  fact  that  bears  upon 
the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  Moses.  Gen.  x.  26-30, 
gives  the  lineage  and  locality  of  some  of  the  chief  tribes  of 
Arabia.  The  dweUiug-place  of  Sheba,  Havilah,  Ophir,  and 
others,  is  "  from  Mesha," — near  the  present  Mocha, —  "  as 
thou  goest  unto  Sepha,  a  mount  of  the  East,"  —  highlands 
running  from  near  Mecca  and  Medina  across  the  peninsula. 
Now  "the  East"  would  not  have  been  used  in  that  way  by 
one  writing  in  Palestine.  It  might  have  been  by  one  in 
the  desert  south  of  it.  And  the  whole  passage  seems  to 
hint  at  "  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,"  or  at  a  knowledge 
of  the  Arabian  peninsula  gained  from  the  Arabs  of  Midian. 

In  this  place  alone  the  article  is  prefixed  to  Kedem  —  the 
East — just  as  it  is  to  the  second  form  of  Anatole,  in  the 
Hebraized  Greek  of  St.  Matthew,  ch.  ii.  2. 


40  THE   EAST   AND   THE   FAR  EAST. 

trate  and  confirm  this.  While  they  were  comparatively 
isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  this  appears,  and 
still  more  clearly  afterwards.  As  the  exile  drew  nigh, 
Assyria  became  "the  North,"  and  upon  this,  Babylonia 
would  very  naturally  become  "  the  East." 

Assyria  lay  not  so  far  north  as  east,  and  the  latitude 
of  the  phrase  is  such  that  it  might  have  been  called  the 
East ;  but  the  Hebrew  prophets  looked  upon  it  as  a 
northern  power.  Its  direction  admitted  of  this  ;  and 
the  first  appearing  of  the  Assyrian  in  Palestine  was 
always  from  that  quarter.  He  never  invaded  Judea 
directly  from  the  east,  because  on  that  side  it  was 
protected  by  the  desert.  To  avoid  this,  he  crossed  over 
to  Damascus  —  as  did  the  Chaldean  after  him.  Thence 
he  came  down  the  upper  valley  of  the  Jordan,  and,  as 
he  marched  southwards,  kept  that  river  on  his  left. 
Had  he  moved  down  on  the  east  bank  of  the  river, 
when  he  came  to  a  point  on  a  line  with  Jerusalem, 
there  would  have  been  in  front  of  him,  as  he  faced 
towards  the  city,  the  wide  valley  of  the  Jordan  sunk 
below  the  level  of  the  ocean,  and,  in  a  military  point 
of  view,  a  sort  of  natural  fosse,  that  made  Judea  almost 
unassailable  from  that  quarter.  Hence  the  prophets 
looked  to  the  northern  hills  of  their  own  land  when 
they  saw  the  war-storm  rolling  down  on  Zion.  In 
Isaiah's  vision  of  the  approach  of  the  army  of  Sen- 
nacherib, those  hills  are  nigh  to  the  Holy  City.  Over 
the  heights  and  tlu'ough  the  strong  passes  of  warlike 
Benjamin  the  heathen  comes,  until  his  last  stand  is  on 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         41 

the  Mount  of  Olives,  whence  he  "shakes  his  hand 
airainst  the  mount  of  the  daughter  of  Zion,  the  hill  of 
Jerusalem."^  So,  too,  in  the  clarion-call  of  the  prophet 
Jeremiah  to  the  most  valiant  of  the  tribes:  "O,  ye 
children  of  Benjamin,  gather  yourselves  to  flee  out  of 
the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  blow  the  trumpet  in  Tekoa, 
and  set  up  a  sign  of  fire  in  Beth-haccerem,  for  evil  ap- 
peareth  out  of  the  North." '^ 

Besides  this,  the  invader  could  not  threaten  Israel 
till  he  had  first  reduced  the  kingdoms  northward  of  it 
to  his  imperial  rule  ;  and  the  armies  of  his  subject  allies 
marched  with  his,  when 

"  The  Assyrian  came  down  like  the  wolf  on  the  fold, 
And  his  cohorts  were  gleaming  in  purple  and  gold, 
And  the  sheen  of  his  spears  was  like  stars  on  the  sea, 
When  the  blue  wave  rolls  nightly  on  deep  Galilee." 

"  Assur  came  out  of  the  mountains  from  the  North  ;  he 
came  with  ten  thousands  of  his  army  ;  the  multitude 
whereof  stopped  the  torrents,  and  their  horsemen  have 
covered  the  hills." ^  Of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  as  em- 
bodied in  its  vast  and  varied  host,  the  later  prophets  and 
writers  of  Israel  spake,  even  as  they  did  when  they  said 
of  the  seat  of  its  dominion,  the  Lord  "will  stretch 
out  his  hand  against  the  North  and  destroy  Assyria, 
and  make  Nineveh  a  desolation."*  But,  when  a  still 
more  awful  storm  of  war  gathered  fiir  off  in  the  same 


1  See  Robinson,  vol.  i.  sec.   9,  p.  463.     Stanley,  ch.  iv. 
sec.  1.     Isaiah  x.  32. 

2  Jer.  vi.  1.  ^  Judith  xvi.  4.  *  Zeph.  ii.  13. 


42         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

quarter  of  the  horizon,  but  to  the  South  of  the  seat  of 
the  Assyrian  power,  the  Country  whence  its  overshad- 
owing arose,  darkening  all  the  west,  must  have  been 
known  as  the  East.^ 


^  It  is  closely  to  be  considered  when,  where,  by  whom, 
and  for  whom,  such  phrases  are  used.  Not  only  the  As- 
syrian Empire,  but  the  Babyloniau  also,  is  spoken  of  by  the 
prophets  as  the  North,  — as  in  Jer.  i.  13,  14,  15  ;  vi.  22  ;  x. 
22;  Isaiah  xiv.  13,  —  and  it  is  not  always  easy  to  tell  to 
which  the  term  refers.  The  latter  usage  had  its  root  in  the 
former,  and  did  not  conflict  with  the  use  of  "  the  East"  for 
Babylonia.  It  is  the  Babylonian  Empire  that  absorbed  into 
itself  the  Assyrian,  which  is  pictured  as  a  northern  power  ; 
and  the  explanations  given  of  this  usage  as  to  Assyria,  ex- 
cept the  first,  apply  here,  especially  the  allusion  in  the  term 
to  those  kingdoms  to  the  northward  of  Palestine,  that  were 
subject  to  tiie  Empire  of  the  Chaldees,  —  as  appears  from 
these  Scriptures  :  "  1  will  send  and  take  all  the  families  of  the 
North,  saith  the  Lord,  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  King  of  Bab- 
ylon, my  servant,  and  will  bring  them  against  this  land,  and 
against  the  inhabitants  thereof;" — Jer.  xxv.  9.  "Nebu- 
chadnezzar, King  of  Babylon,  and  all  his  army,  and  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  of  his  dominion,  and  all  the  people, 
fought  against  Jerusalem;"  —  Jer.  xxxiv.  1.  "Behold, 
I  will  bring  upon  Tyrus,  Nebuchadnezzar,  King  of  Babylon, 
a  king  of  kings,  from  the  North,  with  horses  and  chariots, 
and  with  horsemen  and  companies,  and  much  people.  "  — 
Ezekiel  xxvi.  7.  Here,  as  bel'ore,  the  seat  of  his  dominion 
is  named,  and  then  the  words  "from  the  North"  point  to  his 
war-path,  when,  with  his  northern  allies,  he  comes  down 
upon  Tyre. 

Jeremiah  (eh.  xlvi.  20,  24),  addressing  Egypt,  calls  the 
Babylonian  Empire,  as  if  seen  from  her  stand-point,  the 
North,  and  with  allusion  also  to  the  coming  down  of  its  army 
through  Syria.     He  also  speaks  of  the  defeat  of  the  Egyp- 


THE  EAST  AKD  THE  FAR  EAST.         43 

Thus,  as  the  roll  of  ancient  Scripture  was  closing, 
Babylon  "of  the  Chaldees,"!  —  "that  bitter  and  hasty 
nation  .  .  .  their  horses  swifter  than  the  leopards,  and  more 
fierce  than  the  evening  wolves,"^ — became  the  terror 
of  the  world ;  and  the  East,  ceasing  to  be  the  name  for 
the  Desert,  came  to  mean  the  new  and  terrible  Dominion 
beyond  the  "Great  River."  Ezekiel,  prophesying  the 
ruin  of  the  Ammonites,  in  more  ancient  Scripture  them- 
selves "the  children  of  the  East,"  says  they  shall  be 
destroyed  by  "  the  children  of  the  East "  —  meaning  the 
Chaldeans.^  Isaiah,  referring  to  the  superstitions  and 
sins  of  Babylonish  heathenism,  reproaches  "the  house 
of  Jacob "  with  beinsj  full   of    the    sorceries    of   "  the 

tians  at  Carchemish,  on  the  Euphrates,  as  ia  the  North 
country,  which  it  might  be  called,  as  looked  upon  either 
from  Memphis  or  Jerusalem.  Memphis,  N.  lat.  29°  56'; 
Jerusalem,  31°  49';  Carchemish,  35°  15'. 

There  are  several  other  applications  of  this  phrase.  "  The 
princes  of  the  North,"  Ezekiel  xxxii.  80,  mast  be  the 
Tyrians,  as  they  are  named  with  the  Sidoniaus,  and  the 
ground  of  this  usage  is  plain  from  the  map.  In  Jeremiah, 
ch.  1.  2,  3,  9,  41,  the  people  who  arc  to  come  from  the 
North  against  Babylon,  are  the  Medes,  part  of  whose  terri- 
tory lay  to  the  northward  of  that  city. 

^  Isaiah  xiii.  19. 

2  Hab.  i.  6,  8. 

^  Ezek.  XXV.  3,  4,  5,  10.  This  prophecy  is  one  of  a 
series  that  includes  all  the  Arab  tribes  who  rejoiced  in  the 
ruin  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  and  its  fulfilment,  in  part  at 
least,  is  recorded  by  Josephus,  when  he  says,  "  In  the  fifth 
year  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  Nebuchadnezzar 
made  war  against  the  Ammonites  and  the  Moabites,  aud 
brought  those  nations  into  subjection."  —  Autiq.  x.  9,  7. 


44         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

East."^  To  these  evidences  of  this  usage  may  be  added 
this  verse  :  "  Solomon's  wisdom  exceeded  the  wisdom 
of  all  the  children  of  the  East  Country,  and  all  the  wis- 
dom of  Egypt."  ^  To  refer  this,  as  many  have  done,  to 
tlie  wisdom  of  the  desert,  is  unsatisfoctory  indeed ;  for 
no  especial  wisdom  can  be  attributed  to  the  Arabs  in  or 
before  Solomon's  time,  and  none  in  their  own  country 
at  any  time.  Besides  this,  the  numerous  preceding 
allusions  in  Scripture  to  the  Arabs,  give  them  the  char- 
acter of  wild  marauders,  dreaded  by  their  more  civilized 
neighbors,  the  Israelites ;  so  that  the  ill-considered 
notion,  that  this  passage  refers  to  them,  is  as  repugnant 
to  Hebraic,  as  to  general  history.  This  interpretation* 
then  being  rejected,  it  is  plain,  that,  as  in  the  verses 
of  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  just  referred  to,  so  here,  "the 
children  of  the  East"  mean  the  Babylonians.  This 
interpretation  gives  the  tw^o  clauses  of  the  verse  a  well- 
balanced  significance,  pronouncing  the  wisdom  of  Sol- 
omon superior  to  that  of  the  two  great  countries  from 
immemorial  time  renowned  for  learning.^ 

^  Isaiah  ii.  6.  ^  j  j^i^og  iv.  30. 

^  The  astronomical  records  of  the  Babylonians  were  of 
great  antiquity  —  evidence  enough  of  their  early  eminence 
in  learning.  See,  hereafter,  page  110.  The  Hebrew  annals 
are  silent  as  to  the  cities  and  kingdoms  on  the  Euphrates  and 
Ti'H'is,  —  save  notices  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  —  until  near 
the  close  of  the  period  of  the  Kings  of  Israel ;  but  tliis  is 
no  sufficient  evidence  that,  till  then,  the  Israelites  knew  noth- 
ing of  them.  The  fact  must  have  been  otherwise,  and  there 
are  indications  of  this  in  the  prophets.  In  the  long  com- 
mercial reign  of  Solomon,  the  Israelites  must  have  gained 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         45 

Of  the  East  as  the  phrase  was  thus  used,  on  three 
sides,  the  natural  boundaries  were  well  defined.^  On 
the  south  it  reached  the  Persian  Gulf.  The  Euphrates 
marked  its  nearer  limit,  and  more  effectually  because  it 
was  reached  through  a  waterless  desert.  On  its  farther 
side,  were  the  mountains  aloni?  the  left  bank  of  the  Tis^ris. 

some  knowledge  of  the  East ;  and  there  seems  to  be  no  good 
reason  why  this  verse  might  not  have  been  written  at  the 
close  of  Solomon's  reign.  This  would  carry  much  farther 
back  a  usage  found  in  Isaiah,  but  only  to  a  period  in  which 
it  might  have  naturally  originated.  Besides  this,  the  book 
of  the  Kings  is  thought  by  some  to  have  been  compiled  by 
Jeremiah,  who  lived  a  little  later  than  Isaiah. 

In  the  interpretation,  the  choice  is  between  the  Arabs  and 
the  Babylonians.  The  general  sense  of  the  "  wisdom  of  the 
eastern  world "  is  forbidden  by  the  restricting  form  of  the 
phrase. 

The  LXX.  refer  it  to  the  dLQ/uloi  ui'dooziot,  —  the  wisdom  of 
the  men  of  old,  of  the  wise  of  ancient  days,  evidently  from 
the  fact  that  Kedem,  — which,  primarily  and  literally,  means 
before^  —  may  have  a  time-sense,  or  a  space-sense.  The 
rendering  is  ingenious,  and  its  sense  is  grand ;  but  it  pre- 
supposes a  late  origin  for  the  wisdom  of  Egypt,  which  ^vas 
hoary  with  age  in  Abraham's  day  ;  and  it  has  found  no  favor 
with  modern  scholars.  Still,  this  far-fetched  interpretation 
has  this  value.  It  shows  the  LXX.  thought  the  phrase 
could  not  here  point  to  the  Arabs,  as  it  often  does  in  older 
Scripture. 

^  In  fact,  on  the  north  also  the  boundary  was  well  defined. 
The  section  of  the  Plain  of  the  Two  Rivers  south  of  the 
Median  Wall  (see  note  1,  p.  33),  is  alluvial,  differing  in  this 
from  that  north  of  it,  which,  also,  is  somewhat  more  elevated. 
Below  the  wall,  canals  crossed  from  river  to  river,  irrigating 
the  plain  between  them. 


46  THE    EAST   AND   THE   FAR   EAST. 

A  fitting  theatre  for  great  events  !  Here,  the  Tower 
of  Babel  rose,  and  here,  in  after  times,  was  Baby- 
lon. In  this  land  of  Shinar  was  the  first  gathering- 
place  of  the  sons  of  men.  It  was  the  oldest  haunt 
of  Empire,  and  long  the  coveted  prize  of  power.  It 
was  the  battle-plain  of  nations.  Here  the  Assyrian 
fought;  here  the  Chaldean,  the  Mede,  the  Greek,  the 
Parthian,  the  Eoman.  But  it  was  not  the  abiding 
dwelling-place  appointed  to  any  one  people.  It  had  no 
natural  centre.  It  had  no  lines  of  defence  that  could 
be  permanently  held  against  the  tribes  of  the  mountains 
and  the  desert.  Its  hot  climate  was  so  enervating,  that 
its  abounding  wealth  became  the  booty  of  hardier  races. 
Nowhere  were  seen  splendor  and  havoc  in  more  vivid 
chansre.  Yet  it  was  lonor  the  mart  of  the  commerce  of 
Central  and  Western  Asia,  the  commerce  that  built 
up  Palmyra  in  the  AVaste,  and  Baalbec  between  the 
ridges  of  Lebanon,  a  commerce,  one  of  whose  outlets 
to  the  Mediterranean  was  along  "  the  Way  of  the  Sea  "  ^ 
of  Galilee,  on  whose  busy  western  shore,  which,  in  the 
first  century,  was  almost  a  continuous  line  of  cities, 
towns,  and  villages,  St.  Matthew  must  have  often  seen 
the  long,  overladen  files  of  the  slow  moving  caravans 
coming  from  "  the  East." 

Before  the  Exile,  the  Jews  had  begun  to  call  the 
world-historic  Babylonian  Plain  "  the  East ;  "  and  St. 
Matthew's  term  might,  perhaps,  be  sufficiently  ex- 
plained as  a  lingering  reminiscence  of  ancient  usage  ;  but 

^  Isa.  ix.  1  ;  Matt.  iv.  15. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         47 

there  is  reason  to  think  that,  after  the  Exile,  this  use  of 
"  the  East "  continued  while  the  Jews  lived  in  Palestine. 
To  estimate  the  probability  of  this,  we  must  free  our- 
selves  of  the  feeling  we  unconsciously  attribute  to 
them,  that  all  there  was  of  interest  in  that  country 
centred  in  Babylon.  As  Babylon  the  Great  is  strange- 
ly, and  even  mysteriously,  withdrawn  from  our  eyes, 
the  Plain,  that  was  resplendent  with  the  light  of  its 
glory,  seems  all  at  once  to  become  that  darkened  and 
solitary  waste  that  now  answers  ''so  eloquently  well"  to 
the  prophecies  of  ancient  days  :  "  I  will  render  to  Baby- 
lon, and  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Chaldea,  all  their  evil 
that  they  have  done  in  Zion  :  "  ^  "  Babylon  shall  be- 
come heaps,  ...  an  astonishment,  .  .  ,  without  an  in- 
habitant:"^ "her  cities  a  desolation,  ...  a  land  where 
no  man  dwelleth  :  " ^  "I  will  also  make  it  a  possession  for 
the  bittern  and  pools  of  water ;  and  I  will  sweep  it  with 
the  besom  of  destruction,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."* 

But,  with  the  Lord,  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day; 
and  centuries  passed  before  the  desolations  his  proph- 
ets foresaw  in  vision,  were  seen  by  the  eyes  of  men. 
Zion  v/as  a  ploughed  field  and  Judea  a  waste,  while 
Babylonia  continued  to  be  populous  and  great.  Even 
with  the  sure  decay  of  its  mighty  city,  that  coun- 
try lost  but  little  of  its  importance  to  the  Jews.  The 
Persian,  while  he  was  the  sovereign  of  Palestine,  held 
Babylon  as  one  of  his  capitals.  When  his  dominion 
passed   away,  the  noble  city  of  Seleucia,  at  a  distance 

1  Jer.  li.  24.  ^  j^^^  ^^  43^ 

2  Jer.  li.  37.  ^  Isa.  xiv.  23. 


4:8  THE   EAST   AND   THE   FAR   EAST. 

of  only  forty-five  miles  from  the  site  of  Babylon,  rose 
in  its  stead.  It  was  one  of  the  thirty-five  great  cities 
built  by  Seleucus,  who  became,  after  Alexander,  the 
Greek  lord  of  Central  Asia,  and  also  ruled  over  Pal- 
estine ;  and  it  was  the  capital  of  the  eastern  part  of  his 
wide  dominions.  "  Seleucia  contained  a  numerous  Jew- 
ish population,  on  whom  Seleucus  bestowed  privileges 
equal  to  those  granted  to  his  own  countrymen."^  After 
the  Greek  dominion  in  Asia  had  passed  away,  Seleucia, 
girt  with  its  strong  walls,  continued  even  into  the  sec- 
ond century,  in  spite  of  the  Parthian  power,  a  free  city, 
with  its  own  senate  of  three  hundred  members,  ruling 
over  its  six  hundred  thousand  citizens.^  Ctesiphon,  also 
a  vast  city,  and  one  of  the  capitals  of  the  Parthian  Em- 
pire, was  built  close  to  it.  As  under  the  Persians,  so 
under  the  Greeks,  down  to  the  re-establishment  of  the 
independence  of  the  Hebrews  by  the  Maccabees,  it  con- 
tinued to  be  one  of  the  chief  seats  of  that  royal  author- 
ity, which  the  Jews  of  Palestine  obeyed.  And  it  ever 
had  this  of  interest  to  them  :  it  was  the  dwelling-place 
of  many  of  their  countrymen,  as  many  probably  as  the 
population  of  Judea  itself,  for  but  a  small  part  of  the 
Judean  captives  came  back  from  thence  to  Palestine. 
The  larger  part  remained  in  the  land  of  their  exile,  and 

^  Post-Biblical  History  of  the  Jews,  vol.  i.  ch.  iii.  p.  110. 
I  would  earnestly  commend  to  all  Christian  scholars  this 
admirable  treatise  by  the  very  learned  Rabbi,  the  late  Dr. 
Raphall,  as,  in  some  respects,  the  best  in  our  language. 

^  Gibbon,  ch.  viii.  sec.  2. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         49 

greatly  increased  in  numbers  there. ^  These  Jews  kept 
up  an  annual  intercourse  with  Palestine  ;  and  messen- 
gers were  sent  from  Jerusalem  into  their  country  every 
year  to  collect  silver  and  gold  for  the  temple.^ 

^  The  language  of  Josephus  is  very  strong  —  "  The  entire 
body  of  the  people  of  Israel  remained."  —  Antiq.  lib.  x. 
5,  2.  Of  the  Jews  of  his  own  time,  he  says,  "  Not  a  few 
ten  thousands  dwelt  in  Babylonia." — Antiq.  lib.  xv.  iii.  1. 

As  to  the  question.  Whether  Babylon  was  inhabited  in  the 
first  century  ?  —  from  general  considerations  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  was.  The  Persians  cherished  the  city.  The  Greeks 
and  the  Parthiaus  had  no  reason  to  destroy  it,  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  they  did.  It  was  a  great  city,  and  it  perished 
not  by  the  violence  of  man,  but,  as  it  was  fitting,  by  the  vis- 
itation of  God,  dying  a  lingering  death.  The  idea  that 
Seleucia  was  known  as  Babylon  is  in  itself  improbable,  and 
Plutarch  names  them  together.  —  Life  of  Crassus. 

The  evidence  of  Josephus  to  the  fact  that  Babylon  was  a 
city  in  the  time  of  Herod,  is  as  strong  as  it  can  be.  He  says 
that,  early  in  his  reign,  Hyrcanus,  the  high  priest,  was  taken 
captive- by  the  Parthians,  and  that  Phraates,  the  Parthian  king, 
"gave  him  a  habitation  at  Babylon,  where  there  were  Jews  in 
great  numbers."  —  Antiq.  lib.  xv.  ii.  2.  Also,  that  Herod 
sent  for  Ananelus,  an  obscure  priest  of  Babylon,  and  bestowed 
on  him  the  high  priesthood. — Antiq.  lib.  xv.  ii.  4. 

^  "  Vast  numbers  of  the  Jews  were  scattered  over  every 
city  of  Asia  and  Syria."  —  Philo,  Ad  Caium,  sec.  33.  See 
also.  Contra  Flaccum,  sec.  7.  He  says,  "  Babylon,  and  the 
satrapies  of  the  rich,  adjacent  districts  have  many  Jewish 
inhabitants,"  and  that  yearly,  messengers  were  sent  there  to 
collect  silver  and  gold  for  the  temple.  —  Ad  Caium,  sec.  31. 
In  Yonge's  excellent  version  of  Philo,  in  this  passage,  Philo's 
language  is  that  of  St.  Matthew :  "  Babylon  and  many 
other  satrapies  of  the  East ; "  but  on  comparing  this  with 
4 


50         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

Ever  after  the  Exile  the  Jews  of*  Palestine  well  knew 
the  country  called  by  their  prophets  "  the  East ; "  and  so 
one  of  the  causes  from  which  such  usage  is  apt  to  pre- 
vail, did  not  exist ;  but  there  were  others  that  did. 
Geographically,  that  country  is  one  ;  and  at  the  Christian 
era,  it  was  under  one  Parthian  rule ;  yet  then,  as  now, 
under  one  Turkish  rule,  it  had  many  districts  and  many 
petty  rulers ;  and  these  were  then,  as  now,  ever  chan- 
ging. And  at  the  Christian  era,  the  proper  names  that 
had  in  former  ages  pertained  to  it,  were  out  of  date. 
It  had  been  called  the  land  of  Shinar,^  but  that  was 
before  the  nations  were.  It  had  been  called  the  land 
of  the  Chaldeans,^  but  their  dominion  had  long  passed 
away.  Babylon,  eclipsed  for  centuries  by  the  impe- 
rial cities  in  its  vicinity,  could  then  have  hardly  given 
its  name  to  the  province  in  that  familiar  speech,  that  so 
readily  reflects  the  changes  of  Empire.  It  is  not  prob- 
able, then,  that  at  the  Christian  era  its  common  name  in 
Palestine  was  any  one  of  its  historical  names  of  older  and 
different  times.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  any 
later  historical  "  name  had  arisen ;  and,  from  all  the 
circumstances,  it  is  not  probable  ^  —  even  as  none  has 
arisen  since ;  yet  among  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  it  must 
then  have  had  some  colloquial  name. 

the  original,  it  will  be  found  that  the  words  "  of  the  East" 
are  supplied  by  the  translator. 

^  Gen.  X.  10;  xi.  2. 

^  Isa.  xxiii.  13.    Jer.  xxv.  12. 

^  The  peculiar  fact,  that  the  once  imperial,  and  still  very 
great  city  of  Seleucia,  was  independent  of  the  Parthians, 
must  have  stood  in  the  way  of  this. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         51 

The  caravan  that  journeyed  from  the  land  of  Shinar 
to  the  Holy  Land,  bearing  with  it  the  golden  vessels  of 
the  Temple,  that  was  to  rise  anew  on  the  mountain  of 
Moriah,  was  made  up  of  Israelites  born  in  the  great 
Plain  of  the  Euphrates.  They  reached  the  desolated 
site  of  the  city  they  were  to  build  again,  by  a  circui- 
tous route,  coming  down  upon  it  —  as  the  Assyrian  and 
the  Chaldean  before  —  from  the  North.  But  they  well 
knew  that  the  land  of  their  youthful  memories  lay 

Eight  against  the  eastern  gate, 
Where  the  great  suu  begins  his  state. 

Their  country  was  long  governed  from  thence ;  and 
when  this  bond  between  it  and  them  was  broken,  still 
the  children  of  the  kinsmen  they  left  behind  came  up 
from  thence  to  worship  in  Jerusalem,  and  whatever  his- 
torical names  it  may  have  had  with  them,  it  is  very  nat- 
ural to  suppose  that  in  familiar  household  converse,  this 
land  so  often  thought  of,  so  often  spoken  of,  was  known 
to  them,  as  it  was  to  their  fathers  in  the  generation  pre- 
ceding the  Exile,  by  the  local,  idiomatic  name  of  the 
East.i 

^  The  resemblance  between  this  Hebrew  usage,  and  the 
use  of  the  name  "  the  East,"  as  the  popular  name  in 
Massachusetts  for  the  State  of  Maine,  has  been  referred  to 
on  p.  26.  Down  to  the  year  1820,  Maine  was  united  to 
Massachusetts,  and  its  legal  title  was  the  District  of  Maine  ; 
—  a  name  not  satisfactory,  and  not  easy  to  speak.  The 
people  are  quick  to  catch  up  a  new  name,  when  one  they 
often  use  does  not  easily  melt  into  the  flow  of  speech. 
Maine  was  settled  in  part  from  Massachusetts.     Boston  was 


52         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

Writers  trained  in  the  artificial  rhetoric  of  the 
schools,  are  inclined  to  reject  colloquial  phrases,  as  be- 
neath the  dignity  of  a  learned  style ;  but  the  untram- 
melled genius  of  St.  Matthew  was  not  thus  hindered 
from  using  household  words  —  as  when  he  wrote  the 
Holy  City,  for  Jerusalem.  St.  Matthew  chose  words 
most  definite  to  himself  and  wrote  naturally.  Thus  he 
gave  to  Babylonia  the  name  he  was  accustomed  to  give 
to  it  in  familiar  converse,  and  which  pointed  it  out 
exactly  to  his  countrymen.  He  might  have  used  one 
of  its  old  scriptural  names ;  ^  but,  when  he  was  intro- 

its  commercial  and  political  capital.  Hence  the  phrase  —  so 
common  in  such  cases — up  to  Boston;  and  the  peculiar, 
invariable  form  of  the  phrase  —  "  down  East.'* 

My  first  faint  impression  that  St.  Matthew's  term  was  a 
local  idiom,  with  a  restricted  and  definite  geographical 
meaning,  may  unconsciously  have  come  from  this  usage  ; 
for  I  was  familiar  with  it  in  my  youth,  hearing  it  ten 
times  where  I  heard  the  word  Maine  once.  Thus,  —  "the 
family  has  moved  down  East,"  or,  "  he  lives,"  or  "  has  gone 
down  East."  So,  too,  the  first  railroad  from  Massachusetts 
to  Maine  was  "  the  Eastern  Railroad  ; "  Avhile  it  was  the 
second  that  was  called  "  the  Boston  and  Maine." 

As  bearing  on  a  line  of  thought  in  the  Appendix  to  this 
chapter,  it  may  be  well  to  add,  that  although  this  usage, 
having  been  long  established,  is  generally  understood  in  the 
United  States,  it  is  strictly  a  local  idiom  of  a  section,  only, 
of  New  England. 

^  Had  he  called  it  the  land  of  the  Chaldeans,  it  would 
have  tended  to  confound  the  Magi  with  a  learned  class 
addicted  to  astrology,  and  known  as  Chaldeans  ;  and  this 
name  was  obsolete  in  his  time.  St.  Stephen  used  it  (Acts 
vii.  4),  but  as  both  Philo,  De  Abrah.,  sec.  17,  and  Josephus, 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         53 

ducing  the  pilgrim  strangers  as  Persians,  he  did  not 
desire  to  recall  any  of  the  historical  reminiscences  asso- 
ciated with  them;  and  so,  the  name  he  did  use  —  the 
East  —  was  in  every  way  suited  to  his  purpose. 

This  term, — the  East, — then,  is  not  general  or 
vague.  It  means  that  country  which  in  the  common 
speech  of  man,  will  be  ever  known  as  Babylonia; 
for,  by  every  geographical  and  historical  consideration, 
in  the  first  century,  this  country  answers,  beyond  all 
reasonable  doubt,  to  the  name  —  the  East  —  on  the  lips 
of  a  Hebrew  in  Palestine.  Thus,  the  Magi  tell  us, 
that  the  Star  of  the  Lord  was  first  known  by  human 
eyes  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  where  its  earliest  beams 
shone  serenely  down  on  the  vanishing  splendors  of  the 
mighty  and  mystic  Babylon. 

Having  determined  what  is  meant  in  St.  Matthew  by 
the  East,  it  will  not  be  difficult,  nor  detain  us  long,  to 
determine  what  is  meant  by  the  Far  East.  For,  how- 
ever vague  this  term  may  seem  in  itself,  by  its  relation 
here  to  the  term  —  the  East  —  its  meaning  was  clear  to 
the  Jews  of  Palestine,  through  their  acquaintance  with 
the  eastern  world  ;  and  it  becomes  so  to  all,  on  looking 
at  tlie  map  of  Western  Asia. 

Again,  let  us  stand  on  the  highlands  beyond  the 
Jordan,  and  look  out  over  the  Great  Plain,  in  part  a 
desert,  in. part  the  garden  of  Asia.     As  these  highlands 

Antiq.  i.  vii.  1,  contrast  the  wisdom  of  Abraham  with  the 
philosophy  of  the  Chaldeans,  the  same  thought  may  have 
led  to  his  allusion  to  Abraham  as  dwelling  in  the  land  of 
the  Chaldeans,  and  the  antiquated  name  was  in  keeping 
with  his  biblical  argument. 


54         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

overlook  tliis  Plain  on  this  side,  so,  on  the  other,  do 
the  mountains  that  rise  from  the  High  Plateau  of  Persia 
beyond,  which  must  be  the  Far  East  of  the  Evangelist. 
It  lies  very  directly  in  the  line  indicated,  not  widening 
much  to  the  south,  because  of  the  Persian  Gulf  and 
the  Indian  Ocean  ;  nor  to  the  north,  because  of  the 
Caspian  Sea  and  its  inhospitable  eastern  shore.  The 
separation  between  it  and  the  East  is  clearly  defined. 
And  the  term  cannot  point  farther  on,  for  it  must  reach 
its  limit  before  it  can  pass  the  barren  mountains  and 
trackless  deserts  in  which  Persia  loses  itself  in  that 
direction,  an  almost  impassable  country,  little  known 
in  ancient  or  in  modern  days. 

But  the  question  here  comes  up.  Why  did  not  St. 
Matthew  use  the  proper  geographical  name,  and  say 
Magi  from  Persia  ?  No  geographical  name  would  have 
pointed  out  to  those  for  whom  he  wrote,  the  "coun- 
try of  the  Magi,"  more  clearly  than  his  familiar  name, 
the  Far  East  —  especially  as  here  used  in  connection 
with  the  East ;  and  it  was  the  best  name  he  could  use. 
That  Aryan  race  of  Persians  and  Medes,  known  to  us 
by  the  name  of  the  former  only,  who,  in  all  historic 
time,  have  constituted  the  great  majority  of  the  people 
of  that  country  known  to  us  as  Persia,  have  always 
called    that    country    Iran,   that   is    the    Aryan    land.^ 

^  "  The  appellation  of  Persia  is  unknown  to  its  inhabit- 
ants, by  whom  that  region  of  Asia  is  named  Iran."  — 
Historical  and  Descriptive  Account  of  Persia,  by  J.  B, 
Fraser,  eh.  i.  p.  1.  *^  Iran,  which  Europeans  call  Persia. 
.  .  .  Iran  has  from  the  most  ancient  times  to  the  present 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.         55 

Through  all  its  dynasties,  Assyrian,  Median,  Persian, 
Greek,  Parthian,  and  Moslem,  this  name  is  appropriate 
to  it.  Not  so  the  name  Persia,  given  to  that  country 
by  the  Greeks,  from  the  tribe  ruling  there  when  first 
they  became  acquainted  with  it.  The  Persian  sov- 
ereio;ntv  over  it  ceased  three  hundred  years  and  more 
before  St.  Matthew's  time ;  and,  for  two  hundred  years 
and  more,  it  had  been  ruled  by  the  Parthians.  The 
Jews  of  Palestine  were  so  familiar  with  these  political 
changes  that,  probably,  ^ki^  name  for  that  country  in 
classical  Greek  was  not  much  used  in  their  Oriental, 
Hebraized  dialect  of  that  language,  and  may  have  meant 
that  part  of  it  occupied  by  the  Persians,  Media  being 
joined  with  it  to  designate  the  whole  country  ^ 

But,  could  he  not  have  said  —  Magi  of  the  Persians  ? 
No ;  for,  of  the  Aryan  race,  in  the  Aryan  land,  there 
were  two  great  families,  the  Medes  and  the  Persians.^ 

day  been  the  term  by  which  the  Persians  call  their  country." 
—  Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  1,  n.  Compare  Herodotus,  ch.  vii.  62. 
"  Anciently  the  Medes  were  called,  by  all  nations,  Aryans." 
This  word  is  sometimes  written  "  Arians,"  as  by  Rawlinson  ; 
but  its  use  in  that  form  in  ecclesiastical  history  makes  the 
form  here  given  preferable. 

^  This  was  sometimes  the  case  in  the  Old  Testament,  as 
in  Esther  i.  3,  14 ;  Dan.  viii.  20.  It  is  so  also  in  the 
Greek  of  the  Apocrypha,  as  in  1  Esdras  iii.  1,  —  "the 
princes  of  Media  and  Persia."    See  note  2,  p.  56. 

^  Parthia  was  but  a  district  of  Iran ;  the  Parthians  were 
rather  barbarous  and  few,  compared  with  the  rest  of  its 
population,  and  they  did  not  impress  their  name  on  the 
Aryan  land.  Thus,  Josephus  speaks  of  the  Parthians  and 
of  the  King  of  the  Parthians,  not  of  Parthia.     See  Antiq., 


56         THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

On  the  tomb  of  Darius  the  Great  is  written,  '^I  am  an 
Aryan,  of  Aryan  descent ;  a  Persian,  the  son  of  a  Per- 
sian."^ In  Syria,  in  the  Evangelist's  time,  the  distinc- 
tion was  still  kept  up ;  ^  and  he  would  have  had  to  use 

lib.  xiii.  eh.  viii.  4;  cli.  xiv.  3;  lib.  xiv.  ch.  xiii.,  passim; 
ch.  vi.  2  ;  ch.  vii.  1  ;  lib.  xv.  ch.  ii.  1  ;  ch.  iii.  9.  Had 
the  Evangelist  called  the  strangers  Parthians,  he  would  have 
obscured  the  very  relations  he  wished  to  point  out,  by  con- 
necting them  with  a  race  with  whom  their  relations  were 
those  of  government,  and  not  of  history  or  lineage. 

*  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society,  vol.  xi.  291-313  ;  vol. 
xii.  App.  xix.-xxi. 

^  Looking  at  this  Aryan  race  from  a  stand-point  far  off,  alike 
in  space  and  in  time,  we  blend  completely  into  one  its  two 
great  families,  and  call  them  Persians,  as  we  call  those 
who  fell  at  Thermopylse  and  those  Macedonians  who  fol- 
lowed Alexander,  alike,  Greeks.  But  the  Jews  recognized 
the  diiference.  In  their  Scriptures,  as  in  general  history, 
first,  the  Medes  appear.  Israel  is  captive  in  "  the  cities  of 
the  Medes."  —  2  Kings  xvii.  6.  In  the  prophets  it  is  the 
Medes,  with  whose  name  alone  they  were  then  acquainted,  that 
are  first  seen :  "  The  Lord  hath  raised  up  the  spirit  of  the 
kings  of  the  Medes"  against  Babylon. — Jer.  li.  11,  and 
Isaiah  xiii.  17.  At  length  the  other  great  family  comes  in 
sight,  and  "the  kingdom  of  Persia."  —  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  20. 
But  the  distinction  is  not  lost  sight  of.  Darius  is  "  the 
Median,"  Cyrus  "the  Persian." — Daniel  v.  31;  vi.  28. 
There  are  "  the  laws  of  the  Persians  and  Medes,'*  Es- 
ther i.  19  ;  "  the  seven  princes  of  Persia  and  Media,"  i.  14  ; 
and  "  the  province  of  the  Medes,"  Ezra  vi.  2.  The  Persians 
often  gave  their  own  name  to  the  whole  people  and  territory  in 
the  days  of  their  Empire  ;  but  afterwards,  as  the  Medes  were 
the  most  numerous  and  their  territory  the  largest,  they  must 
liave  become  at  the  last,  as  at  the  first,  the  more  prominent 
of  the  two.     Generally,  in   the   Apocrypha,   the   terms  are 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAK  EAST.         57 

the  word  Persians  in  the  narrower  sense  that  King 
Darius  did,  as  excluding  the  Medes.  This  may  have 
been  what  he  did  not  mean  to  do  ;  for  the  little  evidence 
there  is  on  the  subject  goes  to  prove  that  the  Order  of 
the  Mairi  belong^ed  rather  to  the  Median  than  to  the 
Persian  branch  of  this  Aryan  family.^  It  is  probable 
St.  Matthew  did  not  know  whether  the  strangers  be- 
longed to  the  Median  or  the  Persian  branch  ;  and  it  was 
quite  immaterial.  What  he  wished  to  do,  was  to  point 
out  that  they  belonged  to  that  Aryan  race,  of  old  the 
benefactor  of  Israel. 

In  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  the  Far  East  twice  means 
Persia.  There,  Cyrus  is  "  the  Man  from  the  Far  East,"  ^ 
and  the  Persian  Eas^le  is  "  the  eao^le  from  the  Far  East."  ^ 

used  as  in  the  Scriptures.  In  the  book  of  Tobit,  it  is  all 
Media ;  in  the  book  of  Judith,  it  is  said,  "  the  Persians 
quaked  at  her  boldness,  and  the  Medes  were  daunted  by  her 
hardihood  (xvi.  10)  ;  and  it  looks  very  much  like  confirma- 
tion of  what  has  just  been  said,  when,  in  2  Esdras  i.  3,  one  is 
spoken  of  as  "  a  captive  in  the  land  of  the  Medes,  in  the 
reign  of  Artaxerxes,  King  of  the  Persians."  It  accords  with 
this  and  shows  how  familiar,  even  to  the  last,  the  Jews  in 
Palestine  were  with  the  state  of  things  in  Persia,  that,  in 
Acts  ii.  9,  where  we  might  expect  the  name  of  the  Persians, 
St.  Peter  speaks  of  the  "  Parthians  and  the  Medes." 

^Herodotus,  ch.  i.  101,  says  the  Magi  were  a  tribe  of  the 
Medes. 

^Isa.  xli.  2. 

^Isa.  xlvi.  11;  —  "a  ravenous  bird."  The  eagle  was 
the  emblem  of  Persia.  —  ^schylus,  Persae,  205-210.  Xeno- 
phon  says  ^'  the  ensign  of  Cyrus  was  a  golden  eagle  held 
upon  the  top  of  a  long  lance.  This  remains  the  ensign  of 
the  Persian  king  to  this  day."  —  Cyrop.,  vii.  1. 


58         THE  EAST  AXD  THE  FAR  EAST. 

This  was  in  passages  that  brought  vividly  to  mind  the 
relations  of  old  between  the  Holy  City  and  those  kings 
of  Iran,  who  ordered  the  temple  to  be  rebuilt  at  their 
own  cost,  and  prayers  there  to  be  said  for  the  king  and 
the  people  of  Persia  forever,^  —  relations  the  Evangelist 
might  well  recall,  as  he  told  of  the  coming  of  Magi  from 
Persia  to  Jerusalem. 

^  Josephus,  Antiq.,  lib.  xi.  eh.  2.  3  ;  ch.  4.  9. ;  ch.  5.  1. 


CHARACTER   AND   RELIGION  59 


CHAPTER    III. 

CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION    OF    THE    PERSIANS. 

Since  these  things  are  so,  light  may  be  shed  on  this 
Persian  pilgrimage  from  the  Character  and  Religion  of 
the  Persians  of  old.  But  a  common  knowledge  of  these 
—  if  I  may  judge  by  my  own,  when  some  years  since  I 
began  this  inquiry  —  can  hardly  be  assumed;  and  an 
explanation  of  this  pilgrimage  must  sketch  them,  in  out- 
line, at  least. 

Even  this  is  not  so  easy.  The  time  is  far  back.  The 
country  far  away.  Its  few  ruinous  monuments  are  like 
rocks  that,  rising  out  of  the  sea,  doubtfully  point  to  the 
bearino^  of  mountain  ranores,  and  the  confioruration  of 
lands  sunk  in  the  waters.  The  light  is  obscure.  The 
guides  not  over  trustworthy.  I  dare  not  despise  aught 
that  may  help  me  in  trying  to  draw,  as  well  as  I  can, 
the  portrait  of  the  Persian  of  old.  I  will  fill  out  my 
conception  of  what  the  Persian  was,  from  what  he  is 
now.  This  I  may  rightly  do  ;  for,  in  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  his  history,  he  has  had  much  the  same  characteristics. 

The  Persian  is  of  the  Caucasian  type.  His  com- 
plexion is  rather  dark  ;  his  face  oval ;  his  abundant  hair 
black,  ancl  fine  of  texture  ;  his  forehead  high;  eyebrows 


60  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

arching  and  connected  ;  eyes  large,  brilliant,  and  dark  ; 
his  features  regular,  serious,  and  calm  ;  lips  thin ;  chin 
narrow  ;  beard  flowing ;  his  chest  broad ;  limbs  well- 
proportioned  ;  hands  and  feet  well-shaped ;  his  gait 
erect  and  fine  ;  his  walk  graceful.^  Of  old,  as  now,  he 
w^as  fond  of  dress  :  — "  the  long  and  carefully  curled 
hair  of  the  Persians  is  conspicuous  on  the  sculptures  of 
Persepolis."  '-^  Of  old,  as  now,  the  Persian  was  fond 
of  show  ;  yet  high-spirited  and  brave.  Of  old,  as  now, 
he  was  luxurious  in  his  feelings,  and  a  lover  of  wine ; 
yet  hardy  in  his  training,  temperate  in  his  food,  patient 
under  privation,  much  in  the  open  air,  a  horseman,  and 
given  to  sports  of  the  field.  Of  old,  as  now,  the  Per- 
sian was  courtly,  lively,  quick-witted.     He  was  social, 

•^  "  The  Persians  are  more  than  good-looking,  they  are  a 
handsome  race"  (Malcolm's  Sketches  of  Persia,  ch.  xii. 
p.  126)  ;  "  and  fond  of  decorating  their  persons"  (ch.  xvii. 
p.  229).  But  most  of  the  people  of  the  northern  prov- 
inces of  Persia  are  of  Tartar  origin.  Of  such  are  the  Persian 
merchants  seen  in  the  bazaars  of  Constantinople.  Of  such 
are  most  of  the  ruling  class  and  the  reigning  family  ;  but  in- 
termarriage with  Persians  has  bettered  the  physical  pecu- 
liarities of  the  Tartar  race.  Lady  Shiel,  wife  of  a  British 
minister  at  Teheran,  the  capital  of  Persia,  in  "  Glimpses  of 
Life  in  Persia,"  says  of  one  of  the  royal  family,  "  She  was 
really  lovely ;  fair,  with  indescribable  eyes,  and  a  figure  only 
equalled  by  the  chefs-d'oeuvre  of  Italian  art."  The  same 
beauty  of  form  that  now  marks  the  pure  Persian  race  is  seen 
on  the  old  sculptures  of  Persepolis. 

^  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  ili.  p.  424.  The  Persians 
wore  long   hair. — Herodotus,  book  vi.  sec.  19. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  61 

convivial,  pleased  with  himself,  proud  of  his  country,^ 
—  the  Frenchman  of  the  East.^ 

On  his  lips,  the  poetry  and  extravagance  of  the  East ; 
yet  sometimes  with  a  simple  grandeur  of  word.  On 
his  tomb  at  Pasargadas,  the  founder  of  the  Persian  em- 
pire recalls  the  founder  of  his  family ;  of  his  own  deeds 
he  says  nothing,  —  his  name  will  call  them  up  ;  —  "I 
am  Cyrus,  the  King,  the  Achaemenian." 

Of  old,  with  an  immortal  instinct  that  led  him  to  keep 
records  and  set  up  monuments,  Cyrus  the  Great  made 
a  decree ;  the  fourth  king  after  him  was  petitioned 
that  search  might  be  made  for  this  ;  and  search  was 
made  in  "the  house  of  rolls,"  and  the   "roll"   of  the 

^  "  The  Persians  look  upon  themselves  as  greatly  superior 
to  the  rest  of  mankind."  —  Herodotus,  book  i.  sec.  134. 

^  "  I  accord  to  the  Persian  all  the  politeness  of  manners, 
and  all  the  readiness  and  vivacity  of  wit  that  are  wanting  to 
the  Osmanli."  —  Vamberry's  Travels  in  Central  Asia,  book 
i.  p.  22.  Bishop  Southgate  contrasts  their  affability  with 
the  reserve  of  the  Turks  (Tour  in  Armenia  and  Persia, 
vol.  ii.  ch.  i.  p.  9,  10),  and  says,  "  the  Persians  are 
certainly  among  the  most  accessible  and  polite  people  on 
earth"  (ch.  ii.  p.  18).  Their  resemblance  to  Frenchmen 
strikes  all  travellers  in  Persia.  It  is,  at  least,  curious  that 
this  likeness  reaches  to  skill  in  cookery  —  an  art  in  which 
Persian  princesses  are  proud  to  display  their  success  ;  and 
to  a  distaste  for  a  seafaring  life.  Malcolm  says,  "  The 
natives  of  this  place  "  —  a  small  port  on  the  Persian  Gulf  — 
"  are  almost  all  of  the  Arab  race,  and  fond  of  the  sea  ;  a  pro- 
pensity the  more  remarkable,  as  it  is  in  such  strong  contrast 
with  the  disposition  of  the  Persians,  of  whom  all  classes  have 
an  unconquerable  antipathy  to  that  element."  —  Sketches, 
ch.  iii.  p.  33. 


62  CHARACTER   AND   RELIGION 

decree  was  found. ^  A  steep  rock,  seventeen  hundred 
feet  high,  overhangs  the  thoroughf\ire  between  Baby- 
lonia and  Persia.  On  the  smooth  face  of  this  rock- 
tablet,  three  hundred  feet  above  the  ground,  Darius  the 
Great  ordered  an  image  of  himself  to  be  sculptured, 
erect,  holding  his  bow,  two  of  his  officers  of  state  be- 
hind him,  a  rebel  under  his  feet,  nine  others  in  bonds 
before  him,  and,  beneath,  a  record  of  the  first  five  years 
of  his  reiofn  to  be  carved  in  three  lano^uaones, — and 
there  the  traveller  beholds  it  now.^ 

The  palace  of  the  Persian  of  old  was  the  noblest  pile , 
his  palace-hall,  the  largest  ever  built  by  regal  policy 
or  pride,  ^  —  fitting  the  state  of  the  sovereign,  whom  the 
Greeks  ever  called  "the  Great  King."  The  court  of 
the  Persian  of  old  was  sublime,  — shadowing  forth  his 
conception  of  the  court  on  high. 

1  Ezra  V.  6-17;  vi.  1-13. 

^  This  long  rock-inscription  at  Behistun  is  in  the  Persian, 
Babylonian,  and  Scythian  languages.  It  was  executed 
(B.  C.  515)  by  the  command  of  Darius  Hystaspes,  fourth 
monarch  of  the  empire.  A  translation  of  it  is  given  in 
Bawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  ii.  p.  590,  etc. 

^  The  idea  of  the  magnificence  of  the  palaces  of  the  Per- 
sian kings  given  by  the  book  of  Esther,  ch.  i.  5,  6,  is  con- 
firmed by  the  ruins  of  Persepolis.  Ferguson,  in  a  Treatise 
on  the  Palaces  of  Nineveh  and  Persepolis,  describing  the 
ruin  now  called  the  Hall  of  Xerxes,  makes  these  state- 
ments :  *'  The  central  hall  alone  covered  more  than  forty 
tliousand  square  feet,  or,  with  its  walls,  fifty-five  thousand 
seven  hundred  ;  its  three  porticos  add  forty-two  thousand 
five  hundred  feet  to  this,  and,  including  the  guard-rooms 
(six  thousand  eight  hundred),  it  makes  a  rectangle  of  about 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  63 

With  something  of  Asiatic  indifference  to  the  worth 
of  human  life,  the  Persians  of  old  were  not  cruel  by  na- 
ture.      With    something   of   Oriental   sensuality,    they 

three  hundred  feet  by  three  hundred  and  fifty,  or  one  hundred 
and  j&ve  thonsand  square  feet.  The  great  Hall  of  Karnac, 
in  Egypt,  the  most  stupendous  building  of  antiquity,  covers, 
internally,  but  fifty-eight  thousand  three  hundred  feet,  and 
with  its  walls  and  porticos  only  eighty-eight  thousand  eight 
hundred.  No  cathedral  in  England,  nor,  indeed,  in  France 
or  Germany,  covers  so  much  ground  ;  that  of  Cologne  comes 
nearest  to  it — eighty-one  thousand  five  hundred  i'eet.  Mi- 
lan cathedral  covers  one  hundred  and  seven  thousand  eight 
hundred  feet.  He  finds,  or  fancies  some  resemblance  be- 
tween this  building  and  the  Hall  of  Xerxes,  in  the  general 
character  of  the  effect  it  must  have  produced  upon  the 
spectator,  and  says,  "  Neither  is  quite  satisfactory ;  yet 
the  most  rigid  critic  cannot  deny  that  they  produce  a  sensa- 
tion of  bewilderment  and  beauty  wliich  it  is  impossible  to 
resist,  and,  to  most  minds,  they  seem,  and  must  have  always 
appeared  to  be  among  the  noblest  creations  of  human  intel- 
lect and  human  power."  —  Part  i.  sec.  i.  pp.  171-2. 

He  says,  "  I  cannot  conceive  anything  more  gorgeous, 
or,  perhaps,  much  more  beautiful,  than  such  a  building  as 
this  must  have  appeared  in  the  clear  sunshine  of  a  Persian 
climate,  if  ornamented  and  colored  as  I  conceive  it  to  have 
been  in  the  days  of  its  pristine  magnificence." — Part  i. 
sec.  i.  p.  155. 

Of  the  Colossal  Bulls,  fifteen  feet  in  height,  which  adorned 
the  Propylaea  of  this  edifice,  he  says,  "  There  is  a  massive- 
ness  in  the  muscular  development,  and  a  rugged  solidity 
about  the  joints,  which  give  to  these  animals  a  character  of 
gigantic  force  unmatched,  so  far  as  I  knov/,  in  auimal  sculp- 
ture, but  analogous  to  what  the  Greeks  attained  in  their 
representation  of  Hercules."  —  Part  i.  sec.  i.  p.  109.  Of 
Persian   architecture,   as  compared  with  Grecian,  he  says, 


64  CHARACTER   AND   RELIGION 

were  distinguished  by  moral  sensibility.  "They  hold 
it,"  says  Herodotus,  "  unlawful  to  talk  of  anything  it  is 
unlawful  to  do.^  Lying,  they  think,  is  most  disgraceful ; 
and,  next  to  this,  to  be  in  debt.  This,  for  several 
reasons,  but  especially  because  they  think  that  one  who 
is  in  debt,  must  of  necessity  tell  lies."^  One  of  their 
names  for  God  was,  "The  Father  of  Truth." 

The  Persian  now  is  speculative  and  fond  of  the  mys- 
terious, but  not  fanatical.  The  Persian  of  old  was 
imaginative,  earnestly  inquisitive,  generously  apprecia- 
tive. He  easily  adopted  foreign  customs;  —  "no  na- 
tion," says  Herodotus,  "  more  readily  ;  "  ^  —  yet  he  was 
tenacious  of  his  own  ideas.  The  law  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians  altered  not.  Their  ancient  religion  sometimes 
attracted  and  allied  thoughts  and  usages  of  other  na- 
tions, yet  ever  kept  its  own.* 

^'  The  comparison  is  more  favorable  to  Persia  than  one 
might  at  first  be  led  to  expect ;  and  her  Art,  when  we  accus- 
tom ourselves  to  its  imfamiHar  forms,  has  an  elegance  and 
grace,  as  well  as  an  appropriateness,  that  renders  it  well 
worthy  of  study  and  attention."  —  Part  i.  sec.  i.  p.  87,  88,  89. 

^  Herodotus,  book  i.  sec.  138. 

^  Book  i.  sec.  138.  They  teach  their  sons  three  things  ; 
to  ride,  to  use  the  bow,  and  to  speak  the  truth.  —  Book  i. 
sec.  136.  In  Persia,  Malcolm  says,  '^  nobody  walks."  In  the 
sadddle  the  Persians  handle  the  matchlock  as  adroitly  as  of 
old  the  bow.  But  all  travellers  report  that,  as  to  truthful- 
ness, they  have  degenerated. 

^  Herodotus,  book  i.  sec.  135. 

*  Of  the  Parsees,  as  the  small  remnant  of  believers  in 
the  old  Persian  religion  in  Persia  and  India  are  called,  con- 
verts to  Christianity  there  are  few  or  none. 


OF   THE    PEUSIANS.  65 

In  energy,  the  Persians,  of  all  Asiatics,  are  most  like 
Europeans.  This  energy  is  due  in  part  to  the  bounds 
appointed  them.  A  country  central  in  Asia ;  low, 
sandy,  hot  coasts  along  the  gulf;  elsewhere,  an  upland 
of  cool  and  bracing]:  air ;  mountain  ridofes  in  all  direc- 
tions  ;  vales  and  plains  of  verdure  ;  vast  salt  deserts  — 
on  the  whole  a  poor  country,^  uninviting  to  strangers,^ 
yet  loved  with  passion  by  the  Persians,  whose  thousand 
poets, ^  in  strains  awaking  the  envy  of  other  countries, 
sino^  the  land  of  the  rose  and  the  nis^htino^ale. 

^  Yet  the  Persians  may  well  boast  of  their  fruits.  In  the 
hot,  sandy  tract,  the  date,  the  fig,  the  pomegranate,  the 
lemon,  the  orange,  come  to  perfectioa  ;  and  the  grapes  of 
Shiraz  are  good  as  its  wine.  The  peach  tree  is  said  to  be 
a  native  of  Persia,  and  there  grow  all  the  fruits  of  the 
temperate  zone. 

^  Yet  a  most  interesting  country,  as  presenting  divers 
forms  of  life,  that  for  European  races  live  only  in  history 
and  romance.  The  Persians,  iisteuicg  to  bards  reciting  from 
the  Shahnameh,  recall  the  Greeks,  who,  in  like  manner 
and  with  like  emotion,  knew  the  songs  of  Homer.  The 
wild  clans  of  the  mountains,  with  their  fealty  to  their  chiefs, 
their  fastnesses  among  the  hills,  their  raids  on  the  flocks  and 
herds  of  the  lowlands,  are  the  Highlanders  in  the  novels  of 
Scott.  The  lords  of  Persia  in  their  strongholds,  with  armed 
retainers  around,  are  the  great  nobles  of  the  Feudal  age  in 
Europe  ;  their  power,  their  state,  their  high  heroic  qualities 
the  same ;  their  passions,  too,  the  same  ;  the  same  their 
lawlessness,  their  craft,  their  cruelty. 

^  Literally  so,  if  we  count  in  the  number  the  bards,  who, 
in  every  village,  and  to  the  tribes  of  the  mountains  at  night- 
fall, to  impassioned  listeners  crowding  round,  recite  heroic 
stanzas  from  the  Shahnameh,  or  sing  the  odes  of  Hafiz,  or 
5 


6Q  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

The  historic  period  of  Persia  began  in  the  seventh 
century  before  Christ  (B.  C.  65S),  when  Achjenienes  — 
a  leader  whose  name  the  Persian  monarchs  loved  to  re- 
call—  led  an  emigration  into  a  narrow  territory,  along 
the  northern  shore  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  There  he  founded 
a  kingdom  ;  and  there  were  the  ancient  Persian  capitals, 
Pasargadse  and  Persepolis.  When  the  Persians  thus 
came  into  Persia  Proper,  their  kinsmen,  the  Medes, 
who  appear  earlier  in  history,  dwelt  in  the  region  ad- 
joining it  on  the  north.  A  century  later,  these  kin- 
dred tribes,  coming  under  one  government,  ruled  from 
the  hio^hlands  east  of  the  Tif^ris  to  the  hio^hlands  west 
of  the  Indus,  and  from  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  River 
Oxus  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  The  Persian  Empire,  thus 
founded  in  the  sixth  century  before  Christ  (B.  C.  558) 
by  Cyrus  the  Great,  besides  Persia  or  Iran,  embraced, 
at  one  time  or  another,  Assyria,  Syria,  Asia  Minor, 
islands  of  the  ^gean,  Egypt,  parts  of  Arabia,  of 
Scythia,  and  of  India.  In  the  fourth  century  before 
Christ  (B.  C.  331)  Persia  was  conquered  by  the 
Greeks.  In  the  third  century  before  Christ  the  Par- 
thians  —  a  tribe  that  had  been  subject  to  the  Persians 
- — rose  up  against  the  successors  of  Alexander,  and  at 
length  founded  the  Parthian  Empire.  In  the  third 
century  after  Christ  (A.  D.  226)  the  Persians  re- 
established their  own  kingdom.  In  the  seventh  century 
(A.  D.  651)  the  Arabs  converted  the  Persians  to  Mo- 
hammedanism,  by  the    sword.       The   cruelty   of   their 

of  Saadi.     Persia  is  just  at  that  stage  of  culture  wlieu  poetry 
is  the  passion  of  all  classes. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  67 

conquest,  while  it  explains  their  success,  shows  the 
Persians  tenacious  of  their  relio^ion.  Its  success  is  also 
explained  by  the  fact,  that  the  religion  of  the  Persians 
and  of  Mohammed  had  points  of  contact  in  the  idea  of 
one  God,  in  detestation  of  idols,  and  in  some  common 
traditions.  In  some  Moslem  sects  in  Persia,  and  in 
Persian  poetry,  an  influence  from  the  old  religion  may 
be  discerned  ;  but  so  thorough  was  the  conquest,  that 
only  a  few  who  clung  to  the  old  religion  remained  in 
Persia ;  only  a  few  escaped  into  India.  In  Persia  this 
remnant  are  called  Guebres  —  Fire  Worshippers.  In 
India  they  are  called  Parsees  —  that  is,  Persians.  Most 
of  their  merchants  live  in  the  city  of  Bombay.  For 
their  numbers,  the  Parsees  are  the  wealthiest  race  under 
British  dominion  in  India,  and  the  most  intelligent  and 
charitable.  Throughout  the  commercial  world  their 
merchants  have  a  high  character  for  energy  and  honor. 
In  the  seventh  century  before  Christ  the  historic 
period  of  Persia  began  ;  but  some  of  the  monuments 
of  its  religion  are  of  much  older  date.  They  are  as  old 
as  any  of  the  monuments  of  the  religion  of  India,  if 
they  do  not,  in  fact,  transcend  them  all  in  antiquity,  and 
reach  near  to  the  age  of  the  primeval  kingdoms  of 
Egypt  and  Babylon.  The  Zend,  the  sacred  language 
of  Persia,  and  the  most  ancient  dialect  of  the  Sanscrit, 
the  sacred  language  of  India,  are   the  same  language.^ 

^  Of  Zend,  Dr.  Haug  states,  ''  Its  relation  to  the  most 
ancient  Sanscrit,  the  so-called  Vedic  dialect,  is  as  close  as 
that  of  the  different  dialects  of  the  Grecian  language, 
^olic,  Ionic,  Doric,  and  Attic,  to  each  other."  —  Essays  on 


68  CHARACTER   AND   RELIGION 

The  language  and  traditions  of  these  two  countries 
prove,  that  at  some  very  remote  epoch  there  was,  in 
a  people  of  the  same  language,  a  division,  caused  in  a 
measure  by  a  divergence  in  religion,^  and  resulting  in 
the  formation  of  two  peoples.  One  part  of  this 
ancient  community  kept  more  pure  the  truth  revealed  to 

the  Sacred  Language,  Writings,  and  Religion  of  the  Par- 
sees,  by  Martin  Haug,  Dr.  Phil.,  late  of  the  Universities  of 
Tubingen,  Gottingen,  and  Bonn ;  Superintendent  of  San- 
scrit Studies,  and  Professor  of  Sanscrit  in  the  Poona  College, 
Bombay.  1862,  part  ii.  p.  117.  Dr.  Haug  states  that  the 
Brahmins,  -who  are  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  classi- 
cal Sanscrit,  as  he  calls  it,  are  unable  to  explain  the  more 
ancient  parts  of  the  Vedas  ;  and  that  "  there  is  no  doubt 
the  classical  Sanscrit  was  formed  long  after  the  separation  of 
the  Iranians  from  the  Hindus."  —  Part  ii,  pp.  117,  118.  The 
Zend,  he  calls  "the  elder  sister  of  the  Sanscrit."  —  Part  i. 
p.  17.  Hard  wick  calls  it  "  second,  if  not  the  eldest  of  the 
sister  tongwes  which  form  the  Indo-European  family."  He 
says.  Purely  philological  reasons  leave  no  doubt  of  the  "  pro- 
tracted intercourse  of  Persians  and  Hindus,  who  clung  to- 
gether as  a  great  community  ages  after  the  migrations  of  the 
Celt,  the  Teuton,  and  the  Sclave  across  the  bounds  of  East- 
ern Europe." —  Christ  and  other  Masters,  by  Charles  Hard- 
wick,  Cambridge,  England,  1862.  Part  iv.  chap.  iii.  p.  147. 
^  The  evidence  of  this  Is  in  facts,  of  which  the  following 
are  specimens  :  "  In  all  the  Vedas,  and  in  Brahminic  litera- 
ture, Deva  Is  the  name  of  the  gods  who  are  objects  of 
worship  to  this  day.  In  the  Zendavesta,  from  its  earliest  to  its 
latest  parts,  and  even  in  modern  Persian  literature,  deva  — 
modern  Persian .  div  —  is  the  general  name  of  an  evil  spirit  or 
devil."  —  Dr.  Haug,  part  iv.  p.  225.  In  the  Vedas,  Indra  is 
the  highest  of  the  gods,  and  a  benevolent  deity  ;  with  the 
Persians  he  is  degraded  in  rank,  and  malevolent  In  character. 


OF   THE   PERSIANS.  69 

the  fathers  of  mankind,  the  other  corrupted  it  into  a 
pantheistic  nature-worship.  The  line  of  this  division 
was  the  River  Indus,  and  the  Persians  and  the  Hindoos 
its  monuments. 

This  division  was  the  final  breaking  up  of  that  pri- 
maeval family  or  tribe  in  Asia,  from  out  of  which, 
before  this,  had  been  the  migrations  of  those,  who, 
within  the  bounds  of  Europe,  were  to  become  the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Celts,  the  Teutons,  and  the 
Sclaves ;  in  a  word,  the  nations  of  Europe,  in  their 
long  succession  and  varied  development  —  migrations 
not  within  any  historic  period,  but  attested  to  have  been 
out  of  the  bosom  of  the  same  family  by  resemblances 
in  their  languages,  through  which  the  languages  of 
Persia,  of  India,  and  of  Europe  have  been  classed 
together  as  one  grand  division  of  human  speech,  and 
called  the  Indo-Germanic,  or  Indo-European,  or  Aryan, 
or  Japhetan  languages  —  names,  each  of  which  strives 
to  grasp  and  express  the  unity  and  diversity  of  this 
wonderful  phenomenon ;  as  in  like  manner,  and  with 
like  cause,  the  languages  of  the  Arabs,  the  Syrians, 
the  Phoenicians,  and  the  Hebrews  are  called  Shemitic 
lano;uao^es. 

In  a  time,  then,  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  usual 
appliances  of  human  history,  in  a  region  somewhere  in 
the  heart  of  Asia,  there  appears  the  early  vision  of  a 
family  from  which  go  forth,  towards  the  east,  the  lords 
of  India,  and  towards  the  west,  the  successive  races 
that  peopled  Europe,  and  are  now  spreading  over  the 
Americas,  and   the  expectant  islands  of  the  deep.     I 


70  CHARACTER    AND    RELIGION 

know  of  no  such  far-reaching  prospect  in  human  his- 
tory, of  no  higher  summit  of  mortal  vision,  from  which 
to  survey  the  procession  of  the  nations,  the  on  windings 
of  the  oceanic  stream  of  life.  This  affiliation  of  nations, 
so  far  severed  in  space  and  time,  so  different  in  their 
tongues  to  the  common  ear,  and  so  distinct  in  their 
histories,  this  affiliation  that  connects  them  into  one 
division  of  the  human  race  and  disconnects  them  from 
the  others,  is  a  grand  fact,  that  kindles  the  soul  to 
thought.  What  was  the  religion  of  this  family,  before 
it  broke  up,  to  find  such  different  destinies?  What  was 
its  religion  far  away  back  in  that  early  day,  when  the 
fathers  of  these  unborn  nations  spoke  one  language? 
There  is  something  in  all  the  mythologies  of  this  great 
family  of  the  human  race,  suggesting  that  its  religion, 
then,  was  the  worship  of  God.  Over  all  its  idolatry 
broods  the  dim  presence  of  some  One  higher  and  soli- 
tary Power ;  and  to  the  ages  gone,  as  to  a  fount  of 
wiser  inspiration,  all  these  varied  nations  have  looked 
back  with  dim,  regretful  memories.  As  their  tradi- 
tions are  traced  farther  backwards,  they  more  and  more 
approximate  towards  the  primeval  facts  recorded  in  the 
annals  of  our  ancient  and  holy  religion,  and  ever  more 
and  more  appear  the  tokens  of  some  early  relation  of 
the  one  only  living  and  true  God.  Many  and  varied 
are  the  lines  of  evidence  that  point  to  this  conclusion  ; 
but  I  find  the  decisive  proof  of  the  fact  in  the  ancient 
reHgious  monuments  of  the  Persians,  as  connected  with 
that  struggle  against  idolatry  which  resulted  in  their 
existence  as  a  people. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  71 

Zendavesta  ^  is  the  name  given  to  what  remains  of  the 
relisfious  records  of  the  ancient  Medes  and  Persians. 
It  consists  of  a  few  hymns  and  prayers,  and  of  one 
only  of  twenty-one  books  that  contained  their  religious 
and  scientific  ideas.  The  Zendavesta,  though  but  a 
fragment  of  an  extensive  literature,  contains  those  parts 
of  it  most  important  for  understanding  the  rise,  genius, 
and  history  of  the  Persian  religion.  A  few  of  its 
hymns  and  prayers  are  written  in  a  dialect  much  older 
than  the  rest  of  it,  and  such  changes  appear  in  its  lan- 
guage, and  so  many  centuries  were  required  for  the 
formation  of  the  literature  to  which  it  belonged,  that 
the  most  ancient  of  its  hymns  were  probably  written  at 
a  time  not  much  later  than  that  of  Moses.  Some  of  the 
oldest  of  these  hymns  were  composed  by  Zoroaster, 
and  their  age  determines  the  period  in  which  he  lived. 

This  sage,  whom  Iran  revered  as  her  prophet,  in  the 
Zendavesta  is  styled  Zarathrustra,  —  a  word  changed 
by  the  Romans  into  Zoroaster.^  The  Greeks  and 
Romans  took  this  for  a  proper  name.  It  was  the  title  of 
the  Hiirh  Priest  of  Iran.  The  Zoroaster  of  world-wide 
fame  is  distinguished  in  the  Zendavesta  by  his  family 
name,  Spitama.  His  successors  in  office  were  thought 
to  commune  with  God,  as  the  Persians  believed  Zoro- 
aster did  ;  their  sayings  and  doings  were  confounded  by 
foreigners  with  his ;  and  hence  the  uncertainty  as  to  the 

^  This  name  indicates  that  the  Book  consists  of  a  Text 
(Avesta),  and  a  comment  upon  it  (Zend). 

^  By  the  Greeks  into  Zarastrades  aad  Zoroastres  ;  bj  the 
Parsees  into  Zcrdosht. 


72  CHARACTER   AND   RELIGION 

age  in  which  he  lived,  and  whether  there  were  one,  two, 
three,  or  more  of  the  same  name  —  questions  long  dis- 
cussed among  the  learned.^ 

In  forming  a  conception  of  any  old  religion,  we  al- 
most, of  necessity,  conceive  of  it  as  it  may  have  been  at 
some  one  period,  and  so  include  in  our  conception  of  it 
features  it  may  have  had  earlier  or  later.  All  the  re- 
lictions of  old  had  chano^es  from  without  and  from  within  ; 
but  there  were  peculiar  and  great  features  of  the  Persian 
religion  that  were  always  the  same.  The  Persians  of 
old  were  not  idolaters.  They  believed  in  a  self-existent 
Creator  of  all  good.  His  name  was  Ahura-Mazda, 
thouo^ht  to  mean  the  Livin<?  Creator  of  all —  a  name,  in 
later  Persian,  contracted  into  Ormazd.  The  Persians 
conceived  of  another  being,  also  self-existent,  who  was 
the  creator  of  evil.  His  name  was  Angromainyus , 
in  later  Persian,  Ahriman,  Such  a  creed,  strictly  con- 
strued, held  to  two  eternal  powers ;  but,  happily,  it 
was  inconsistent  with  its  first  principles.  The  good 
being  was  mightier  than  the  evil  being,  and,  in  the  end, 
was  to  destroy  him. 

Having  a  revelation  of  the  spirituality  of  God,  the 
Persian  reared  to  him  no  temple,  fashioned  of  him  no 
image.  He  worshipped  him  before  a  flame  of  fire. 
Herodotus  says,  "  the  Persians  held  Fire  to  be  a  god  ;  "  '^ 
but  this  was  not  the  belief  of  Iran.  These  words  are 
from  the  oldest  recorded  utterance  of  her  ancient  fiiith, 

^  Haug,  part  iii.  sec.  27,  p.  232  ;  comp.  134. 
^  Herodotus,  book  iii.  sec.  16, 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  73 

from  a  creed,  or  prayer,  or  hymn  —  it  is  all  three  in 
one  —  of  Zoroaster  himself:  "Blessed  is  he,  blessed  are 
all  men,  to  whom  the  living,  wise  God,  of  his  own 
command,  should  grant  those  two  everlasting  powers, 
—  health  of  the  soul,  and  immortality.  For  this  very 
good,  I  beseech  Thee,  Ahura-Mazda,  mayest  thou, 
through  thy  angel  of  piety,  give  me  happiness,  the  true 
good  things,  and  the  possession  of  the  good  mind.  I 
believe  Thee  to  be  the  best  being  of  all ;  the  source  of 
Light  for  the  world.  Everybody  shall  choose  Thee  as  the 
source  of  Light ;  Thee,  holiest  spirit.  Thou  createst  all 
good  things.  ...  I  will  believe  Thee  to  be  powerful, 
holy.  For  thou  givest,  with  thy  hand  filled  with  helps, 
good  to  the  pious  man,  as  well  as  to  the  impious,  by 
means  of  the  warmth  of  the  fire  streno^thenins:  the  srood 
things."^ 

The  Median  usage  of  worshipping  before  a  flame  of 
fire  may  have,  in  part,  originated  in,  and  certainly  in 
part  is  to  be  explained  by,  the  Oriental,  ancient  idea  of 
the  element,  Light.  Of  this  essence,  that  which  we 
call  Light,  was  to  the  Persian  but  one  of  the  various 
manifestations  ;  Heat  was  another  ;  and  both  were  com- 
bined in  the  blaze  of  the  fire.  The  invisible,  universal, 
manifold  element  itself,  he  thought,  in  some  way,  per- 
tained to  God.  Among  the  sayings  ascribed  by  the 
Greeks  to  the  Persians,  it  was  said  of  God,  "his  body 
resembles  Light,  as  his  spirit  resembles  Truth."  This 
reminds    of   what  is    written    in    the   Divine   Oracles : 

^  Gatha  Ustavaiti,  i.  1,2,  4.     Haug,  p.  147. 


7'J:  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

God  "covereth  himself  with  light,  as  with  a  garment ;  "  * 
"  He  dwelleth  in  light,  which  no  man  can  approach  unto."^ 
The  Persian  thought  this  divine  element  was  the  media  ^ 
of  creative  energy.  Ahura-Mcizda  created,  "  through 
his  inborn  lustre,  the  multitude  of  the  celestial  lumi- 
naries."* It  was  the  media  of  his  omnipresent  agency, 
— "  by  the  warmth  of  the  fire  strengthening  the  good 
things  "  he  had  created. 

Of  this  divine  element,  the  gross,  material  fire  on  the 
Median  altars  was  a  symbol.  To  form  this  altar-fire,' 
fires  from  sixteen  places  were  brought  together  in  one ; 
fire  generated  by  the  rubbing  together  of  two  sticks  of 
wood,  fire  from  the  kitchen,  fire  from  steel-workers, 
glass-makers,  potters,  dyers,  all  the  mechanics,  and  fire 
from  a  funeral  pile.  The  corpse  was  pollution  to  a 
Mede  or  a  Persian  ;^  yet  the  fire,  in  which  a  dead  body 
had  been  burned,  was  the  most  indispensable  of  all  to 
the  symbolical  flame  on  the  altar,  for  it  was  thought  to 
have  absorbed  the  fire  in  the  human  frame.  Four  was 
a  perfect  number,  and  the  square  of  four  filled  out  to 
perfection  the  fulness  of  the  representative  idea  in  the 
fire  gathered  from  sixteen  fires.^     This   collective   fire 

1  Psalms  civ.  2.  2  j  xim.  vi.  16. 

^  Gatha  Ustavaiti,  i.  1,  2,  4.     Haug,  p.  147. 

*  I  use  the  plural  iuteutionally,  in  view  of  the  manifold- 
ness  of  the  element,  —  Light.  Mark  the  expression,  "  Father 
of  Lights."  —  James  i.  17. 

^  The  Vendidad,  Fargard,  v.-viii.,  contains  minute  direc- 
tions for  the  treatment  of  a  dead  body.  Running  through 
these  all  is  the  idea  of  its  utter  impurity. 

^  The  Vendidad,  Fargard,  viii.  73-96,  contains  directions 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  75 

represented  that  element  which  is  the  unseen  cause  of  all 
seeing,  and  of  the  heat,  through  which  is  the  growth 
of  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds.  The  visible  fire 
on  the  altar  was  a  symbol  of  the  invisible  fire  that  per- 
vaded and  vivified  all  things,  and  was  the  life  in  nature. 
It  represented  a  great  and  universal  mystery,  behind 
which  was  the  mystery  of  mysteries  ;  for  that  invisible 
fire  was  the  Shelcinah  itself.  Hence,  the  collective, 
mystic  flame,  purified  by  prayers  said  over  it  to  God, 
was  so  sacred  that  it  became  impure  if  the  direct  rays, 
even  of  the  sun,  fell  upon  it.^ 

The  Mede  and  the  Persian  thouMit  that,  throuo^h  this 

for  the  preparation  of  the  sacred  Fire.  The  Parsees  observe 
them  at  this  day.  The  reason  for  the  number  is  a  conjec- 
ture of  mine.  Traces  of  a  lost  science  or  art  of  numbers, 
seem  to  run  through  Oriental,  ancient  thinking.  Some  of 
these  appear  in  Holy  Writ,  alike  in  the  books  of  Moses, 
learned  in  the  wisdom  of  Egypt,  and  of  Daniel,  learned  in 
the  wisdom  of  Chaldea.  Some  of  the  thought  of  this  lost 
art  may  be  gathered  here  and  there.  Philo  Judaeus  preserves 
something  of  this,  as  to  the  first  seven  numbers.  Four,  he 
says,  is  "  a  perfect  number,"  and  "  preeminent  in  nature." 
He  proposed  to  show  its  mystic  powers,  in  full,  in  a 
special  treatise. — On  the  World,  sees.  xiv.  xv.  xvi.  xvii. 
Seneca  tells  how  certain  of  the  Magi,  who  chanced  to  be  at 
Athens,  where  Plato  died  on  his  eighty-first  birthday,  were 
so  struck  with  his  perfect  time-cycle,  nine,  the  most  perfect 
of  numbers,  multiplied  into  itself,  or  the  square  of  nine,  that 
they  paid  honors  to  him,  as  to  one  more  than  a  mortal.  — 
Ep.  58. 

^  Their  Atish-khudars,  houses  for  the  sacred  fire,  are  so 
constructed  now  by  the  Parsees,  that  the  sun-rays  cannot 
fall  on  the  sacred  fire. 


76  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

sacred  flame,  God  might  reveal  his  truth  to  his  true 
worshippers.  Zoroaster  said,  "Standing  at  thy  fire, 
among  thy  worsliippers  who  pray  to  thee,  I  will  be 
mindful  of  the  truth  ;  "  ^  and  he  exhorted  his  disciples 
"  to  contemplate  the  beams  of  the  fire  with  a  most  pious 
mind."^  Standing  thus  himself,  musing,  praying,  wor- 
shipping, his  burning  thoughts  seemed  to  him  kindled 
from  the  altar-blaze.  "I  will  now  tell  you,"  he  says, 
"you,  who  are  assembled  here,  the  wise  sayings  of  the 
Most  Wise,  the  praises  of  the  Living  God,  and  the 
songs  of  the  good  Spirit,  the  sublime  truth  which  I  see 
arising  out  of  these  sacred  flames."^  This  custom  of 
worshipping  before  a  flame  was  older  than  the  time  of 
Zoroaster.  I  think  it  may  have  originated  in  some  old 
tradition  of  a  revelation  of  God  through  a  flame  of  fire, 
like  to  that  Moses  beheld  in  Midian.^ 

Ormazd  said,  "  My  light  is  concealed  under  all  that 
shines;"^  and  hence  the  Persian,  as  he  revered  the 
sacred  fire,  revered  also  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  every 
shining  thing.  This  reverence,  easily  mistaken  for 
idolatry,  no  doubt  often  became  idolatrous.  No  doubt 
the  Persians  often  confounded  the  media  of  the  power 
of  the  omnipresent  God  —  his  symbols  —  with  God 
himself. 

It  being  a  dogma  of  the  Persian  religion,  that  all  the 

^  Gatha  Ustavaiti,  i.  9.     Haug,  p.  148. 
^  Gatha  Ahunavaiti,  iii.  2.     Haug,  p.  151. 
^  The  same,  sec.  i.  *  Exodus  iii.  1-6. 

•^  Cited  by  Malcolm,  as  from  the  Zendavesta.  Hist,  of 
Persia,  vol.  i.  ch.  vii. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  77 

evil  in  the  world  was  created  by  an  evil  being,  all  that 
was  good  was  representative  of  the  power  and  the  glory 
of  the  good  Being;  and,  through  such  things,  the 
Creator  might  be  worshipped. 

The  idea  of  the  representative  glory  of  God  shining 
through  what  he  had  made,  comes  out  in  the  Persian 
idea  of  a  king.  "I  am,"  says  Jamschid,  in  the  Shah- 
7iameh,  "  by  the  divine  favor,  both  sovereign  and 
priest."  The  Persian  monarch  was  pontiff,  as  well  as 
king.  His  palace  was,  in  some  sort,  a  temple ;  his 
court,  a  copy  of  that  of  Ormazd.  In  number,  the  great 
officers  around  his  throne  corresponded  to  the  archan- 
gels in  the  courts  on  high.  The  King,  exalted  by  the 
divine  will  to  the  dazzling  preeminence  of  temporal 
and  spiritual  lord  of  the  Persians,  was  to  them  an  image 
of  the  power  and  glory  of  God.  Something  of  this  idea 
may  be  seen  in  the  decree  of  Darius,  that,  for  thirty 
days,  no  one  should  offer  any  petition  to  God  or  man, 
save  to  himself;^  in  the  rule  that  no  one,  not  even  the 
Queen,  might  come  before  the  King,  in  his  palace,  un- 
bidden, and  live,  unless  he  held  out  the  golden  sceptre  ;  ^ 
and,  in  this,  that  the  laws  of  the  King,  like  the  laws  of 
God,  altered  not.  In  the  Persian  sense  of  the  word, 
the  King  was  worshipped.  Plutarch,  in  his  life  of  The- 
mistocles,  says,  "None  durst  appear  before  the  King, 
without  prostrating  themselves  on  the  ground."  Nor  did 
they  exact  this  only  from  their  own  vassals,  but  also 
from  foreign  ministers  and  ambassadors  ;  the  captain  of 

^  Daniel  vi.  4-9.  ^  Esther  iv.  10,  11. 


78  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

the  guard  being  charged  to  inquire  of  those  who  asked 
admittance  to  the  king,  whether  they  were  ready  to 
adore  him.  This  is  exphiiiied  by  what  Artabanus  said 
to  Themistocles  :  "  Among  the  many  excellent  laws  of 
ours,  the  most  excellent  is  this,  that  the  king  is  to  be 
honored  and  worshipped  religiously,  as  the  image  of 
that  God  which  conserveth  all  things." 

According  to  the  Persian  creed,  Ormazd  was  the 
creator  of  light,  Ahriman  of  darkness  ;  and  the  never- 
ceasinor  war  of  li^^ht  and  darkness,  the  true  imas^eof  the 
conflict  betw^een  them.  To  take  part  in  this  conflict, 
Ormazd  created  six  archangels,  Ahriman,  six  demons  ; 
the  one,  legions  of  messengers  of  light,  the  other,  of 
emissaries  of  darkness. 

The  Persian  religion  discerned  the  superhuman  origin 
of  the  evil  there  is  in  the  world  ;  and  that  God  wages 
against  it  real,  unceasing,  and  at  last,  victorious  war. 
It  predicted  that  in  the  end  a  Kedeemer  would  come 
to  do  away  with  death,  and  to  raise  the  dead.  It 
taught  the  Persian,  that  if  he  approved  himself  on  the 
side  of  the  Good  Being,  by  good  thoughts,  good  words, 
and  good  deeds,  he  himself,  both  body  and  soul,  should 
share  in  his  triumphs. 

In  proof  of  some  of  these  statements  as  to  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Persians,  I  cite  Scripture,  whose  date  is 
prior  to  the  birth  of  the  founder  of  the  Persian  empire. 
"  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none  else  ;  I  am  God,  and 
there  is  none  like  me  ;  declaring  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  from  ancient  times  the  things  that  are  not 
yet  done,  saying.  My  counsel  shall  stand,  and  I  will  do 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  79 

all  My  pleasure  :  calling  a  ravenous  bird  ^  from  the 
East,  the  man  ^  that  executeth  my  counsel  from  a  far 
country :  yea,  I  have  spoken  it,  I  will  also  bring  it  to 
pass  ;  I  have  purposed  it,  I  will  also  do  it."  ^ 

"  I  am  the  Lord  that  maketh  all  things  ;  that  stretch- 
eth  forth  the  heavens  alone ;  that  spreadeth  abroad  the 
earth  by  myself;  .  .  .  that  saith  of  Cyrus,  He  is  my 
shepherd,  and  shall  perform  all  my  pleasure  :  even  say- 
ing to  Jerusalem,  Thou  shalt  be  built ;  and  to  the  tem- 
ple. Thy  foundation  shall  be  laid."^ 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  his  anointed,  to  Cyrus,  whose 
right  han-d  I  have  holden,  to  subdue  nations  before 
him  ;  and  I  will  loose  the  loins  of  kings,  to  open  be- 
fore him  the  two-leaved  gates,  and  the  gates  shall  not 
be  shut ;  I  will  go  before  thee,  and  make  the  crooked 
places  straight ;  I  will  break  in  pieces  the  gates  of 
brass,  and  cut  in  sunder  the  bars  of  iron  ;  and  I  will 
give  thee  the  treasures  of  darkness,  and  hidden  riches 
of  secret  places,  that  thou  mayest  know  that  I,  the 
Lord,  which  call  thee  by  thy  name,  am  the  God  of 
Israel.  For  Jacob  my  servant's  sake,  and  Israel  mine 
elect,  I  have  even  called  thee  by  thy  name  :  I  have 
surnamed  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me.  I  am 
the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else,  there  is  no  God  beside 
me  :  I  ^ii'ded  thee,  thouoh  thou  hast  not  known  me  : 
that  they  may  know  from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  from 
the  west,  that  there  is  none  beside  me.  I  am  the  Lord, 
and    there   is  none  else.      I  form  the  light,  and  create 

^  The  Persian  eagle.    See  note  on  p.  57. 

2  Cyrus.         2  Isa.  xlvi.  9,  10,  11.         ''Isa.  xliv.  24,  28. 


80  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

darkness;  I  make  peace,  and  create  evil.  I,  the  Lord, 
do  all  these  things."  ^ 

These  words  prove  Schlegel's  assertion,  that  in  the 
Bible  the  Persians  are  not  classed  with  heathen  na- 
tions. For  Cyrus  is  called  the  Lord's  "  shepherd  "  and 
the  Lord's  "  anointed,"  which  is  evidence  that  he  was  a 
worshipper  of  God  ;  and  this  is  certain,  when  it  is  said 
the  Lord  will  strengthen  the  right  hand  of  his  anointed 
to  subdue  the  "  nations  ;  "  for  the  term  rendered  "  na- 
tions "  means  the  heathen,  or  worshippers  of  idols,  in 
strict  opposition  to  the  Israelites. 

Yet  the  Lord  said  to  Cyrus,  "  Thou  hast  not  known 
me ; "  from  which  it  is  to  be  inferred,  that  although 
Cyrus  was  no  idol-worshipper,  his  idea  of  God  was  im- 
perfect, erroneous,  or  contradictory  ;  and  as  the  words 
following  —  "I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else; 
there  is  no  God  beside  me,"  —  are  naturally  taken  as 
referring  to  those  that  precede,  there  is  in  them  evidence 
of  the  divinity  of  Ahriman  in  the  Persian  creed.  When 
this  is  said  again,  it  is  followed  by  words  manifestly 
pointed  against  this  doctrine  of  the  Persian  religion  : 
"I  form  the  light,  and  create  the  darkness.  I  make 
peace,  and  create  evil.  I,  the  Lord,  do  all  these 
thinsrs." 

o 

The  fact  so  strongly  inferred  from  Scripture,  that  the 
Persian  religion  held  to  two  Creators,  is  clearly  proved 
by  the  first  two  of  the  five  small  collections  of  hymns 
in  the  Zendavesta,  called  Gathas.     These  were  written 

1  Isa.  xlv.  1-7. 


or    THE    PERSIANS.  81 

by  Zoroaster.  He  says,  "In  the  beginning,  there 
were  a  pair  of  twins  ;  two  spirits,  each  with  a  peculiar 
activity  :  these  are  the  good  and  the  base,  in  thought, 
word,  and  deed.  And  these  two  spirits  created  mate- 
rial things;  the  one  the  reality,  the  other  the  non- 
reality.  Of  these  two  spirits,  you  must  choose  the 
one,  either  the  evil,  the  originator  of  the  worst  actions, 
or  the  true,  holy  spirit."^  Here,  the  idea  of  two  Crea- 
tors, each  the  antithesis  of  the  other,  is  expressed 
with  a  clearness  beyond  contradiction.  In  the  last 
three  Gathas  the  idea  is  different.  This  inquiry  is 
addressed  to  God:  "Art  Thou  not  He  in  whom  is 
hidden  the  last  cause  of  both  intellects,  good  and  base?  " 

and  the  Creator  of  good  and  evil  is  said  to  be  one 

and  the  same. 

These  words  may  have  come  from  Zoroaster's  dis- 
ciples ;  their  first,  but  not  their  last,  attempt  to  reduce 
his  system  to  pure  Monotheism.  If  from  the  sage  him- 
self, they  prove  that  his  thoughts  were  inconsistent; 
that  in  vain  attempts  to  change  faith  into  philosophy, 
to  solve  the  problem  of  evil,  whose  solution  is  beyond 
the  powers  of  man,  and  which  God  hath  not  revealed, 
he  became  bewildered,  and  contradicted  himself.  Or,  it 
may  be  these  darkened  utterances  repeat  but  what  he  had 
heard..  It  may  be  he  did  not  originate  that  Dualism, 
which  was  the  greatest  error  in  the  creed  of  Iran,  but  he 
did  sanction  it ;  and  his  creed,  if  judged  only  by  this 
doo-ma,  must  be  condemned  as  worse  than  that  of  the 


1  Gatha  Ahunavait,  iii.  3,  4.     Haug,  p.  142. 
6 


82  CHARACTER   AND   RELIGION 

heathen.  But  the  religion  of  the  intellect  and  of  the 
heart  are  not  just  the  same.  The  heart  of  Zoroaster 
forbade  him  to  follow  out  his  creed  to  its  consequences ; 
and  he  seemed  to  have  given  to  the  spirit,  from  whom 
he  believed  that  evil  originated,  divine  attributes,  with- 
out clearly  seeing  they  were  such.  For,  in  his  say- 
ings, —  and  so,  too,  in  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  —  Ahri- 
man  is  really  an  inferior  power.  He  says,  "  Wisdom  is 
the  shelter  from  lies,  the  annihilation  of  the  destroyer," 
—  that  is,  of  the  evil  spirit.^  His  allusions  to  Ahriman 
are  chiefly  in  exhortations  to  withstand  his  assaults  : 
"  Those  who  are  opposed  in  their  thoughts,  words,  and 
actions  to  the  wicked,  and  think  only  of  the  welfare  of 
creation,  their  efforts  will  be  crowned  with  success 
through  the  mercy  of  Ahura-Mazda.'"'^ 

It  would  seem  that  the  fearful  dogma  of  an  evil 
being,  ever  creating  evil,  would  have  made  the  religion 
of  the  Persians  gloomy  and  despairing.  It  might  have 
been  so  in  the  forests  of  Scandinavia,  but  it  was  not 
beneath  the  brilliant  sky  of  Iran.  It  might  have  been 
so  among  some  races,  but  by  nature  "  the  Persians  are 
the  most  cheerful  people  in  the  world." 

Something  of  this  must  be  ascribed  to  the  piety  of 
Zoroaster.  The  dogma  of  an  evil  creator  was  so  dis- 
armed of  its  overshadowing  terror  by  his  trust  in  God, 
that  although  it  ever  remained  an  article  in  the  creed 
of  the  religion  which  revered  him  as  its  prophet,  that 
religion  was  of  good  cheer,  and  alone,  of  the  religions 

^  Gatha  Ahuaavaiti,  iii.  10.     Hang,  p.  143. 
^  Gatha  Ahunavaiti,  iv.  322.     Hang,  p.  145. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  83 

of  the  world,  looked  forward  with  hope.  Zoroaster's 
words  are  the  accents  of  a  soul  inquiring  after  God, 
elevated,  strengthened,  purified  by  contemplation  of 
Him,  and  by  the  assurance  of  immortal  righteousness. 
They  show  him  to  have  been  a  child-like  lover  of  God, 
whom  he  calls  "  the  living,  the  faithful,  the  generous, 
the  holy." 

"That  will  I  ask  of  Thee,  tell  it  me  right,  Thou 
living  God  !  who  was,  in  the  beginning,  the  Father  and 
Creator  of  truth.  Who  made  of  the  sun  and  stars  the 
way?  Who  causes  the  moon  to  increase  and  wane  if 
not  Thou  ?  This  I  wish  to  know,  except  what  I  already 
know. 

"That  will  I  ask  of  Thee,  tell  it  me  right.  Thou 
living  God  !  who  is  holding  the  earth  and  the  skies 
above  it?  Who  made  the  waters,  and  the  trees  of  the 
field?  Who  is  in  the  wind  and  storms  that  they  so 
quickly  run  ?  Who  is  the  creator  of  the  good-minded 
beings.  Thou  Wise? 

"  That  will  I  ask  Thee,  tell  it  me  right.  Thou  Living 
God.  Who  made  the  lights  of  good  effect,  and  the 
darkness  ?  Who  made  the  sleep  of  good  effect,  and  the 
activity?  Who  made  morning,  noon,  and  night,  re- 
minding always  the  priest  of  his  duties? 

"  When  my  eyes  beheld  Thee,  the  Essence  of  Truth, 
the  Creator  of  Life,  who  manifests  his  life  in  his  works, 
then  I  knew  Thee  to  be  the  primeval  spirit  —  Thou 
Wise,  so  high  in  mind  as  to  create  the  world,  and  the 
father  of  the  good  mind. 

''I  believe  in  Thee   as  ^he  Holy   God,  Thou  living 


84  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

Wise  !  because  I  beheld  Thee  to  be  the  primeval  cause 
of  life  in  the  creation.  For  Thou  hast  made  holy 
customs  and  words.  Thou  hast  given  emptiness  to  the 
base,  and  good  to  the  good  man.  I  will  believe  in 
Thee,  Thou  glorious  God  I  in  the  last  period  of  crea- 
tion." ^ 

He  met  in  this  world  the  treatment  given  to  all  of 
whom  the  world  is  not  worthy  :  "  To  what  country  shall 
I  go  ?  Where  shall  I  take  my  refuge  ?  What  country 
is  sheltering  the  master  and  his  companion  ?  None  of 
the  servants  pay  reverence  to  me,  nor  the  wicked  rulers 
of  the  country.  How  shall  I  worship  Thee  further, 
Living  Wise? 

"I  know  that  I  am  helpless.  Look  at  me  being 
amongst  few  men,  for  I  have  but  few  men,  I  implore 
Thee,  weeping,  Thou  Living  God,  who  grantest  happi- 
ness as  a  friend  gives  a  present  to  a  friend.  The  good 
of  the  good  mind  is  in  Thy  own  possession.  Thou 
True."^ 

These  few  broken  words  shadow  forth  much  of  the 
unknown  of  his  history.  These  reveal  the  hope  that 
cheered  him.  "Let  us  be  such  as  help  the  life  of  the 
future.  .  .  .  The  prudent  man  icishes  only  to  he  there, 
tchere  wisdom  is  at  home.  .  .  All  perfect  things  are 
garnered  up  in  the  splendid  residence  of  the  Angel  of 

^  These  are  sentences  from  the  first  two  Gathas  —  choice 
sentences,  that  give  much  too  high  an  idea  of  the  general 
character  of  the  Zendavesta. 

^  Gatha  Ustavaiti,  iv.  1,  2. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  85 

Righteousness,  the  Angel  of  Wisdom,  the  Angel  of 
Truth."  1 

In  the  fragments  of  the  sayings  of  Zoroaster  there  is 
no  clear  trace  of  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead ;  yet  the  Persians  seem  to  have  found  there  its 
germ,  at  least ;  for  they  gave,  as  a  name  to  the  renova- 
tion of  all  things,  in  which  they  believed  the  dead  would 
arise,  a  phrase  of  Zoroaster's  — "  the  perpetuation  of  life." 

In  the  Zendavesta  it  is  foretold  that  Sosiosh,  a  great 
prophet,  commissioned  by  Ahura-Mazda  to  restore  and 
make  all  things  new,  "shall  slay  death," ^  and  that  "in 
his  time  the  dead  will  rise."^ 

The  angels  of  Zoroaster  are  personifications  of  the 
divine  attributes  rather  than  real  beings,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Serosh,  the  angel  of  the  religion  of  Iran.  In 
after  times,  each  abstraction  of  the  mind,  each  faculty 
of  the  soul,  each  animate  and  inanimate  thing,  was 
thought  to  have  its  spirit  or  genius,  and  each  human 
being  his  angel.  The  old  Persian  walked,  attended  by 
a  multitude  of  spirits  of  light  or  of  spirits  of  darkness. 
To  good  spirits,  veneration  was  given  ;  many  of  them 
were  invoked  with  prayer ;  and  some  angels  of  high 
rank  were  so  invested  with  titles  and  honors  of  gods  of 
other  nations,  as  to  give  rise  to  the  assertion,  that  the 
Persians  had  adopted  them. 

As  the  mysterious  element.  Light,  pervaded  every- 
thing in  the  good  creation,  every  such  thing   might  be 


Gatha  Ahunavaiti,  iii.  9,  10. 

Vendidad.    Fargard,  xix.  ^  Zemyad  yasht. 


86  CHAKACTEPw    AND    RELIGION 

f 

an  object  of  reverence,  and  reverence  was  edpecially 
given  to  the  four  elements,  to  the  sun,  to  the  moon,  and 
every  shining  thing.  This  recondite  idea,  together  with 
the  belief  that  everything  in  the  good  creation  had  its 
genius  or  angel,  which  might  be  invoked  with  prayer, 
often  made  their  relis^ion  uuintellimble  to  the  heathen  of 
old,  who  interpreted  its  creed  by  their  own. 

Gibbon  says,  "The  theology  of  Zoroaster  was  dark- 
ly comprehended  by  foreigners  ;  .  .  .  but  the  most  care- 
less observers  were  struck  with  the  philosophic  simplici- 
ty of  the  Persian  worship.  '  That  people,'  says  Herodo- 
tus, '  rejects  the  use  of  temples,  of  altars,  and  of  statues, 
and  smiles  at  the  folly  of  those  nations  who  imagine  that 
the  gods  are  sprung. from,  or  bear  any  affinity  with,  tlie 
human  nature.  The  tops  of  the  highest  mountains  are 
the  places  chosen  for  sacrifices.  Hymns  and  prayers 
are  the  principal  worship  ;  the  Supreme  God,  who  fills 
the  wide  circle  of  heaven,  is  the  object  to  whom  they  are 
addressed.'  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  true  spirit 
of  a  Polytheist,  he  accuses  them  of  adoring  earth,  water, 
fire,  the  winds,  and  the  sun  and  moon.  But  Persians 
of  every  age  have  denied  the  charge,  and  explained  the 
equivocal  conduct  which  might  appear  to  give  a  color 
to  it.  The  elements,  and  more  particularly  the  sun, 
whom  they  called  Mithra,  were  the  objects  of  their  re- 
ligious reverence,  because  they  considered  them  as  the 
purest  symbols,  the  noblest  productions,  and  the  most 
powerful  agents  of  the  Divine  Power  and  nature."^ 

^  Gibbou's  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Ennpire,  ch.  viii. 


OF    THE    PERSIANS.  87 

Missionaries  brino^  the  same  charoe  aofainst  the  Par- 
sees  now ;  and  it  is  answered  by  them  in  the  same  way. 
The  Parsees  revere  Zoroaster  as  their  prophet ;  they 
receive  the  Zenda vesta  as  their  sacred  book ;  their  rites 
are  those  of  their  ancestors  ;  their  creed  expresses  the 
Persian  religion  of  old,  in  its  purest  form  ;  therefore 
I  cite  part  of  a  Catechism  appended  to  the  Book  of 
Prayer,  now  used  by  the  Parsees  in  India. 

"  We  believe  in  only  one  God  ;  and  do  not  believe  in 
any  beside  him.  Question.  Who  is  that  one  God? 
Answer,  The  God  who  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  the  angels,  the  stars,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  fire, 
the  water,  or  all  the  four  elements,  and  all  things  in  the 
two  worlds  :  that  God  we  believe  in  ;.  Him  we  invoke, 
and  Him  we  adore.  Ques.  What  is  the  form  of  our 
God  ?  A.ns.  Our  God  has  neither  face,  nor  form,  color, 
nor  shape,  nor  fixed  place.  There  is  no  other  like  Him. 
He  is  himself  singly,  such  a  glory  that  we  cannot  de- 
scribe Him,  nor  our  mind  comprehend  Him.  Ques. 
What  is  our  religion  ?  Ans.  Our  religion  is  the  wor- 
ship of  God.  Ques.  Whence  did  we  receive  our 
religion?  Ans.  From  God's  true  prophet,  the  true 
Zoroaster.  He  broug^ht  our  religion  for  us  from  God. 
Ques.  Where  should  I  turn  my  face  when  worshipping 
the  holy  Ormazd.  Ajis.  We  should  worship  the  holy, 
just  Ormazd,  with  our  face  toward  some  of  his  creations 
of  light,  glory,  and  brightness.  Ques.  What  are  those 
things?  Ans.  Such  as  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars, 
the  fire,  water,  and  such  things  of  glory.  To  such 
thino^s  we  should  turn  our  f\ice,  because  God  has  be- 


88  CHARACTER    AND   RELIGION 

stowed  upon  them  a  small  spark  of  His  true  glory ;  and 
they  are,  therefore,  more  exalted  in  the  creation,  and 
fit  to  represent  to  us  this  power  and  glory.  Ques. 
Among  the  creation  of  Ormazd,  which  is  the  most 
exalted  ?  A71S.  The  great  prophet  is  the  most  exalted  ; 
and  that  prophet  is  the  excellent  Zoroaster;  none  is 
higher  than  he  ;  the  height  of  dignity  culminates  in  him, 
because  he  is  the  most  honored  and  beloved  of  God. 
Ques,  If  we  commit  any  sin,  will  our  prophet  save  us? 
A.ns.  Never  commit  any  sin  under  that  faith ;  because 
our  prophet,  our  guide,  has  distinctly  commanded  you 
shall  receive  according  to  what  you  do.  If  you  do  vir- 
tuous and  pious  actions,  your  reward  shall  be  heaven. 
If  you  sin,  and  do  wicked  things,  your  reward  shall  be 
hell.  There  is  none  save  God,  that  can  save  you  from 
the  consequences  of  your  sins.  If  you  repent  of  your 
sins  and  reform,  and  the  Great  Judge  consider  you 
worthy  of  pardon,  or  would  be  merciful  to  you.  He 
alone  can  and  will  save  you.  Ques.  What  are  those 
things  by  which  man  is  blessed  and  benefited.  A.}is. 
To  do  virtuous  deeds,  to  give  in  charity,  to  be  kind,  to 
be  humble,  to  speak  the  truth,  to  suppress  anger,  to  be 
patient  and  contented,  to  be  friendly,  to  feel  shame,  to 
pay  due  respect  to  the  old  and  young,  to  be  pious,  to 
respect  our  parents  and  teachers.  Ques.  What  are 
those  things  by  which  man  is  lost  or  degraded?  A7is. 
To  tell  untruths,  to  steal,  to  gamble,  to  commit  treachery, 
to  abuse,  to  be  angry,  to  wish  ill  to  another,  to  be  proud, 
to  mock,  to  be  idle,  to  slander,  to  be  avaricious,  to  take 
what  is  anolher^s  property,  to  be  revengeful,  unclean, 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  89 

envious,  to  be  superstitious,  and  to  do  any  other  wicked 
action." 

The  religion  of  the  Parsees  seems  to  be  an  imperfect, 
rather  than  an  untrue  religion.  It  is  a  relic  of  the  re- 
ligion of  the  primeval  age,  essentially  the  same  as  that 
of  the  book  of  Job.  From  it  we  see,  that  for  more 
than  three  thousand  years  there  has  been  no  enlarge- 
ment or  development  of  religious  truth,  save  in  the  line 
of  the  prophecies  fulfilled  in  the  coming  of  the  Lord, 
and  in  the  truth  by  him  revealed. 

Missionaries  alleo^e  that  in  the  Parsee  religion  now, 
there  is  an  intermixture  of  superstition  and  idolatry  :  and 
certainly  there  was  in  the  religion  of  the  Persians  of 
old.  This  is  proved  by  the  vision  of  Ezekiel,  near  the 
time  of  Cyrus  the  Great,  when  the  Persian  religion  was 
less  corrupt  than  it  was  afterwards.  The  prophet  be- 
held, in  the  Lord's  house  in  Jerusalem,  "creeping  things 
and  abominable  beasts  "  —  the  gods  of  the  Egyptians  ; 
he  beheld  Hebrew  "  women  weeping  for  Tammuz  "  — 
the  Phoenician  worship  of  Adonis;  and,  "in  the  inner 
court  of  the  Lord's  house,  between  the  porch  and  the 
altar,"  priests,  with  their  backs  towards  the  temple  of 
the  Lord,  and  their  faces  towards  the  east,"  and  "they 
worshipped  the  sun,"  after  the  manner  of  the  Magi.^ 
This  fixes  the  brand  of  idol-worship  on  the  Magi,  leav- 
ing no  doubt  that  in  their  religion,  even  as  in  that  of 
the  Hebrews  in  Ezekiel's  time,  there  was  a  fearful  in- 
termixture of  idolatry  with  the  worship  of  the  God  of 
Heaven. 

^  Ezekiel,  eh.  viii. 


90  CHARACTER    AND    RELIGION 

In  the  Persian  religion  there  is  some  confirmation  of 
the  fact,  that  the  Pilgrims  to  Jerusalem  were  Persians  ; 
f<jr  the  reli<yious  veneration  of  the  Persians  for  their  Kino; 
is  the  starting-point  in  the  full  explanation  of  their  wor- 
ship of  the  Young  Child.  In  the  Old  Testament,  wor- 
ship often  means  respect  paid  by  an  inferior  person  to  a 
superior,  in  the  Oriental  fashion  of  bowing  or  falling  to 
the  ground  ;  but  in  the  New  Testament,  with  hardly 
an  exception,  it  means  honor  due  only  to  God.  Thus, 
when  Cornelius  would  have  worshipped  St.  Peter  in 
this  fashion,  he  restrained  him,  saying,  "I  am  myself 
a  Man."  ^  In  a  like  case,  the  angel  said  to  St.  John, 
Worship  God."  ^  "  The  four  and  twenty  elders  fell  down 
and  worshipped  Him  that  liveth  forever  and  ever."^ 
"When  Satan  said,  "If  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship 
me,"  our  Lord  answered,  "It  is  written.  Thou  shalt  wor- 
ship the  Lord  thy  God."*  And  in  St.  Matthew  this 
word  must  have  this  meaning,  for  it  is  the  word  he  uses, 
when  he  says,  that  after  the  Resurrection  the  disciples 
worshipped  Jesus,  when  he  "  came  and  spake  unto  them, 
saying.  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in 
earth;  go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost." 

As  to  the  worship  the  Magi  paid  to  Christ,  this  great 
difficulty  arises  :  it  is  very  strange  they  should  receive  a 
truth  received  with  difficulty,  even  by  the  disciples  of 

^  Acts  X.  25,  26.  "  Rev.  xix.  10. 

3  Rev.  V.  14.  *  Matt.  iv.  9,  10. 

*  Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20. 


OF   THE    PERSIANS.  91 

the  Master,  at  a  late  day,  and  after  many  proofs  of  his 
divinity.  The  explanation  of  the  marvel  is,  in  part, 
given  in  what  has  been  said  of  the  Persian  idea  of  a 
King.  To  a  Persian,  his  king  was  so  representative  of 
God,  that  to  his  Oriental  imagination,  he  seemed  the 
brightness  of  his  glory  and  the  image  of  his  person. 
The  Persian  Pilsrrims  brous^ht  with  them  to  Bethlehem 
somethino^  of  this  idea  of  a  Kinfj;.  This  would  have  led 
them  to  worship,  in  the  Persian  sense  of  the  word,  the 
King  they  sought  and  found  ;  but  their  pure  belief  in 
him  as  a  spiritual  Lord,  and  the  new  Star,  the  sign  of 
his  super-terrestrial  glory,  that  led  to  his  presence,  raised 
their  idea  of  him  high  above  that  of  a  king  of  the  earth, 
and  prepared  them  to  recognize  his  true,  essential 
divinity. 

Their  divinely-appointed  recognition  of  the  divinity 
of  the  Lord,  made  before  the  time,  and  producing  on 
the  instant  only  a  religious  awe  and  wonder  in  those 
who  heard  of  it,  and  made  outside  of  the  house  of 
Israel,  corresponds  to  earlier  revelations  of  the  same  fact 
made  within  the  house  of  Israel  by  the  prophets,  which 
so  rise  above  the  idea  of  the  Messiah  that  prevailed  in 
Israel  at  his  birth.  In  either  case,  it  was  the  sun 
shining  for  an  instant  through  clouds  it  was  not  till  long 
after  to  dispel  from  the  face  of  heaven. 

It  having  been  proved  that  the  Pilgrims  to  Jerusalem 
were  Persians,  an  inquiry  as  to  that  Pilgrimage  is  an 
inquiry  as  to  an  event  in  the  lives  of  the  wisest  and 
best  of  the  disciples  of  Zoroaster ;  therefore  I  have 
painted  the  Zoroastrian  religion  in  the  brightest  colors 


92  CHARACTER   AND    RELIGION 

it  would  bear  ;  but  however  much  the  shadows  in  the 
picture  may  be  darkened,  it  will  still  be  more  credible 
that  the  Pilgrims  St.  Matthew  describes  were  believers 
in  that  than  in  any  other  religion.  For  the  great  truth, 
that  God  is  waging  a  real  and  universal  war  with  Evil, 
inclined  its  pious  believers  to  watch  earnestly  to  discern, 
anywhere  and  everywhere,  signs  of  his  presence  and 
manifestations  of  his  power.  And,  besides  this,  —  the 
central  idea,  the  animating  principle  of  this  religion, — 
there  was  a  belief,  also,  peculiar  to  it,  that  looks  like 
one  of  the  links  of  the  chain  we  are  trying  to  lay  hold 
of  and  to  trace.  It  has  often  been  said  that  all  nations 
looked  back  to  a  golden  age,  but  none,  save  the  He- 
brews, looked  forward  to  one — a  most  instructive 
word ;  but  to  it  the  Persians  are  the  exception. 
They  believed  that  in  the  final  triumph  of  the  Good 
Beinof  the  earth  would  be  redeemed.  In  the  Zenda- 
vesta  there  is  a  fragment  of  a  very  old  epic  song,  in 
which  it  is  foretold  to  Ahriman,  that  for  the  destruction 
of  idol-worshippera,  Sosiosh  shall  be  born  out  of  the 
water  Kacoya,  in  the  east  country.^  This  seems  to  be 
a  reference  to  one  well  known,  rather  than  an  announce- 
ment of  one  unheard  of  before.  In  another  place  it  is 
said,  this  "  hero  will  arise  out  of  the  number  of  the 
prophets  ;  "  "  a  mighty  brightness,"  peculiar  to  Iranian 
worthies  of  oldest  time,  "will  shine  around  him,"  — 
a  mighty  brightness,  created  by  Ahura-Mazda  in  the 
beginning,  and  the  instrument  by  which  Sosiosh  would 
accomplish    his    mission.     This    mission    would    be    to 

^  Vendidad.  Fargard,  xix. 


OF    THE    PERSIANS.  93 

make  **Life  everlasting,  undecaying,  imperishable,  in- 
corruptible, forever  existing,  forever  vigorous,  at  the 
time  when  the  dead  shall  rise  again."  Then,  it  is  said, 
"  imperishableness  of  life  will  exist ;  and  all  the  world 
will  remain  for  eternity  in  a  state  of  purity."^ 

The  germ  of  the  religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  promise  his  mercy  gave  to  the  mother  of  all  human 
kind.  Are  these  words  of  the  Persian  religion  a  far-off 
echo  of  that  promise  ?  They  are  not  among  the  very 
oldest  utterances  of  that  religion.  But  of  those,  only 
broken  voices  are  now  heard  ;  and  whence  came  the  Per- 
sian worship  of  one  God  ?  No  people  ever  became  idol- 
aters, and  of  their  own  accord  came  back  to  his  wor- 
ship. The  Persian  worship  of  God,  then,  must  have  come 
down  to  them  from  the  time  of  Noah.  But,  as  they 
kept  the  truth  of  the  Unity  of  God,  transmitted  to  them 
from  before  the  Flood,  why  not  some  reminiscence  of 
the  promise  of  a  Kedeemer?  It  is  possible  their  hope 
originated  in  the  belief  in  the  Messiah,  preserved  by  the 
Hebrews ;  it  is  possible  it  originated  in  some  earnest 
soul,  kindling  to  ecstasy  as  it  mused  on  the  war  of 
Ormazd  with  Ahriman.  It  is  possible  both  may  have 
concurred  in  Sfivino^  outline  and  color  to  some  faint  and 
far  reminiscence,  till  it  reached  its  final,  definite,  and 
grand  form  ;  and  such,  it  seems  to  me  probable,  was  the 
genesis  and  growth  of  this  Persian  oracle ;  for,  when 
it  is  remembered  that  the  appearance  of  the  Persians, 
as  a  people,  was  consequent  upon  their  clinging  to  old 
truth  from  which  others  were  falling  away ;  that  their 

^  Zemyad  Yasht. 


94  CHARACTEK   AND   KELIGION 

sacred  traditions  resemble  the  facts  recorded  in  Genesis 
more  than  do  those  of  any  other  people ;  that  parts  of 
their  sacred  writings  may  be  as  old  as  the  age  of 
Moses,  and  that,  in  them,  they  look  back  to  a  sacred 
antiquity ;  there  seems  much  wisdom  in  the  opinion  of 
the  learned  Hyde,  that  the  Persians  "semper  ab  ipso 
diluvio  veri  Dei  cultum  tenuisse "  —  ever  kept,  even 
from  the  flood,  the  worship  of  the  true  God. 

In  searching  for  a  cause  of  a  pilgrimage  of  Magi  to 
Jerusalem,  it  is  encouraging  to  find  in  their  sacred 
books  a  prediction  of  a  Redeemer  to  come.  We  must 
inquire  farther  why  they  gave  to  such  a  hope  a  local 
habitation  outside  of  the  land  and  the  race  of  Iran  ;  but, 
if  there  was  some  relation  between  the  Iranian  hope  and 
the  first  promise  to  man,  there  was  a  divine  appropriate- 
ness in  the  fulfilling  of  that  promise,  when  Magi,  whose 
symbol  of  the  Evil  One  was  a  serpent,  fell  down  and 
worshipped  "  the  Seed  of  the  Woman." 


THE    JVIAGI.  95 


CHAPTER    IV 


THE   MAGI. 


With  the  fact  that  the  Pilgrims  to  Bethlehem  were 
Persians,  the  religion  of  Persia  agrees  better  than 
would  that  of  any  other  ancient  country  —  Rome, 
Greece,  or  Egypt,  for  instance — with  the  notion  that 
they  came  from  thence  ;  and  so,  too,  the  character  of 
the  Magi  agrees  better  with  the  fact  that  these  Pilgrims 
were  Magi,  than  would  the  character  of  any  other 
ancient  priesthood  with  the  notion  that  they  belonged 
to  them. 

The  history  of  the  Magi  is  very  imperfect,  but  the 
testimony  to  their  character,  given  in  many  brief  ref- 
erences to  them,  is  so  much  in  their  favor,  as  to  make 
up  on  this  point  for  the  loss  of  the  classical  treatises 
that  spake  at  length,  or  especially,  concerning  them.^ 
Thus,  Philo  Jud{3eus  "deplores  the  deficiency  of  wisdom 

^  The  writers  of  these  were  Ctesias  (B.  C.  400),  physician 
to  King  Artaxerxes  ;  Deiiion  (B.  C.  340)  ;  Theopompiis  of 
Chios  (B.  C.  350),  who,  in  the  eighth  book  of  his  History  of 
Philip  of  Maceclon,  treated  of  the  Magi ;  and  Hermippos 
(B  C.  350) ,  who  also  wrote  of  them.  References  to,  and  fra^r- 
ments  of  their  works,  are  to  be  found  in  Plutarch,  Diogenes 
Laertius,  and  Pliny.  Hang  thinks  Hermippos  had  read  the 
books  of  the  Magi. 


96  THE   MAGI. 

in  the  human  race,  the  slackness  in  the  pursuit  of  those 
objects  to  which  we  ought  to  hasten  eagerly,  the  indo- 
lence through  which  the  seeds  of  virtue  perish ;  while 
for  those  things  which  we  ought  to  forego,  we  show 
an  insatiate  longing ;  whence  it  is  that  the  earth  is  full 
of  men  who  indulge  in  all  kinds  of  pleasure,  while  the 
number  of  the  prudent  and  just  is  small ; "  and  then 
says,  "still,  there  are  some  virtuous  and  honorable 
men  :  of  such,  among  the  Persians,  are  the  Magi ;  who, 
investigating  the  works  of  nature  for  the  purpose  of  be- 
coming acquainted  with  the  truth,  become  initiated  them- 
selves, and  initiate  others  in  the  divine  virtues."^  Thus, 
in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  it  seems  to  be  said  of  the 
Magi,  "  They  seek  for  God ;  being  conversant  in  His 
works,  they  search  for  Him  diligently."^ 

^  Philo.  Quod  omnis  probus  liber  ;  sec.  xi. 

^  Chap.  xiii.  7.  Here  might  be  cited  Justin  Martyr,  who 
says  of  the  priests  of  Mithra,  —  Mithraism  was  a  late  and 
corrupt  phase  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  —  "They  teach 
the  practice  of  what  is  just  and  right"  (Dialogue  with 
Trypho,  sec.  Ixx.),  though  with  the  zeal  of  a  new  convert,  and 
uttering  the  Christian  opinion  of  his  time,  he  refers  this  to 
the  subtilty  of  evil  spirits,  who,  in  this  and  like  cases,  he 
thinks,  counterfeited  the  good  that  really  was  in  the  true 
religion  alone. 

Of  heathen  writers,  Plato,  in  the  passage  referred  to  in 
note  on  p.  98,  leaves  on  the  mind  a  good  impression  as  to 
the  Magi.  Diogenes  Laertius,  in  his  History,  if  so  it  may 
be  called,  of  Ancient  Philosophy,  says,  "  The  Magi  dis- 
course to  the  people  concerning  justice."  i.  6.  So,  too, 
Dion  Chrysostom,  Oratio  Borysthenica.  Apuleius  says, 
"  The  religion  of  the  Magi    is   acceptable   to  the  immortal 


THE   MAGI.  97 

The  name  Masfi  comes  from  a  word  found  in  one  of 
the  most  ancient  hymns  of  the  Zendavesta.  "  Kava 
Yistaspa  "  —  the  royal  friend  of  Zoroaster  —  "  obtained, 
through  the  possession  of  the  spiritual  power  (Maga) , 
and  through  the  verses  which  the  good  mind  had  re- 
vealed, that  knowledge  which  the  Living  Wise,  himself 
the  cause  of  truth,  had  invented."^  The  same  word, 
also,  appears  in  a  name  given  in  the  Zendavesta  to  the 
earliest  disciples  of  Zoroaster.  "  Zarathustra  assigned 
in  times  of  yore  to  the  Magavash  Paradise."^  Hence, 
not  inappropriately,  was  the  name  Magi  given  by  the 
Greeks  to  those  who,  from  immemorial  time,  had  been 
pri'ests  of  the  Persians.^  Like  the  names  Persia  and 
Zoroaster,  it  originated  in  a  Persian  word ;  but,  like 
them,  it  is  a  European  name. 

Among   the    Persians    there    could    be    no    religious 

gods,  pious  undoubtedly,  and  divinely  wise."  Of  much  the 
same  import  is  what  is  said  of  the  Persian  Magi  by  the  Greek 
grammarians,  Hesychius  and  Suidas,  who  define  them  much 
in  the  same  way,  the  last  as  "  lovers  of  wisdom  and  servants 
of  God." 

1  Gatha,  iii.  51,  16.  ^  xhe  same,  15. 

^  Prof  Plumptre,  article  3fagi,  Smith's  Dictionary,  says, 
"  The  word  Magi  does  not  appear  in  the  Zendavesta."  This 
should  be  compared  with  the  citations  above.  Westergaard 
says,  ''  Their  name  occurs  twice  only  in  all  the  extant  Zend 
texts."  Haug,  b.  iii.  sec.  8,  p.  160,  in  a  note  on  "Maga- 
vash," see  above,  says,  "  This  is  the  original  form  of  Magi. 
Its  form  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  is  Magush.  Accord- 
insr  to  this  verse,  it  seems  to  have  denoted  the  followers  of 
Zoroaster."  In  the  Zendavesta,  the  word  for  priests  is 
Atharvan,  guardians  of  the  fire. 
7 


98  THE    MAGI. 

service  without  the  presence  of  one  of  the  Magi.^  The 
learned  heads  of  the  order  had  the  charge  of  the  edu- 
cation of  the  monarch.^  They  were  judges  and  coun- 
sellors of  state.  The  Magi  were  diviners,  astrologers, 
and  interpreters  of  dreams.^  They  searched  into  the 
secrets  of  future  time.  They  professed  to  utter  the 
will  of  God.  The  order  was  to  Persia,  what  Delphos 
w^as  to  Greece.     It  was  the  Persian  oracle. 

^  Without  one  of  the  Magi,  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  Per- 
sians to  sacrifice.  —  Herodotus,  i.  132.  The  Magi  are  em- 
ployed in  worshipping  the  gods  by  prayers  and  sacrifices,  as 
if  their  worship  alone  would  be  accepted.  —  Diogenes  Laer- 
tius,  i.  6.  According  to  this  writer,  their  dress  was  white, 
their  habits  ascetic,  and  they  lived  on  a  vegetable  diet. 

^  Plato  states,  that  the  education  of  the  Persian  prince  was 
intrusted  to  the  four  of  the  Persians  who  severally  excelled 
in  wisdom,  justice,  temperance,  and  fortitude.  The  first  of 
these  taught  him  the  mageia  of  Zoroaster,  by  which  is  meant 
the  worship  of  the  gods,  and  likewise  the  art  of  kingly 
government.  The  second  taught  him  to  be  true  in  word  and 
deed  through  his  whole  life.  The  third  to  govern  his  appe- 
tites instead  of  being  their  slave.  The  fourth  taught  him 
to  be  fearless   and  brave,  since  he  who  fears  is   a  slave. 

—  Alcibiades,  37. 

^  Herodotus  relates  several  instances  of  this.  One  is  as  fol- 
lows :  A  vision  appeared  to  Xerxes  in  his  sleep,  which  the 
Magi,  when  they  heard  it,  interpreted  to  relate  to  the  whole 
world,  and  to  signify  that  all  mankind  should  serve  him. 
The  vision  was  as  follows  :  Xerxes  imagined  that  he  was 
crowned  with  the  sprig  of  an  olive  tree,  and  that  branches 
from  this  olive  covered  the  whole  earth  ;  and  that  after- 
wards the   crown  that  was  placed  on  his  head  disappeared. 

—  vii.  19. 


THE   MAGI.  99 

In  the  loss  of  all  but  one  of  the  books  of  the  Zenda- 
vesta,^  it  is  impossible  to  form  a  full  and  clear  idea  of 
science  of  the  Magi.  But  the  art  of  the  Persians,  as 
shown  in  architecture,  sculpture,  gem-engraving,  coins, 
and  utensils,  seems  not  to  have  fallen  short  of  that  of 
the  Assyrians,  the  Babylonians,  or  the  Egyptians  ;  and 
their  leading  scientific  ideas,  no  doubt,  were  those  essen- 
tially common  to  the  scientific  thought  of  the  earliest 
cycle  of  civilization.  If  so,  they  held  that  the  forms 
of  all  material  things  are  but  the  protean  changes  in 
one  and  the  same   primordial   substance,  produced  by 

^  Iq  its  largest  compass  of  meaDing,  the  word  Zeadavesta 
denotes  a  priestly  literature  that  was  the  growth  of  centu- 
ries. It  resembled  the  Talmud  of  the  Jews.  Its  twenty-one 
books,  or  nosJcs,  set  forth  the  religious  traditions,  opinions, 
rites,  and  ceremonies  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  and  also 
their  philosophical  and  scientific  notions.  The  table  of  its 
contents  is  still  extant,  and  is  as  follows :  B.  I.  Praise 
and  Worship  of  the  Angels.  11.  Prayers  and  Instructions 
as  to  good  actions,  chiefly  those  to  induce  one  to  assist  a 
fellow-man.  III.  On  Abstinence,  Piety,  Religion,  the 
qualities  of  Zoroaster.  IV.  An  Explanation  of  Religious 
Duties.  On  the  Orders  and  on  Commandments  of  God. 
Obedience  in  Man.  How  to  guard  against  Hell,  and  how  to 
reach  Heaven.  V.  On  the  Knowledge  of  this  and  the  other 
Life.  Qualities  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  other  Worlds.  Reve- 
lations as  to  Heaven,  Earth,  Water,  Trees,  Fire,  Men 
and  Beasts.  On  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead,  and  the 
crossing  chinvat  (i.  e.  the  bridge  over  which  the  soul  passed 
into  heaven).  VI.  On  Astronomy,  Geography,  Astrology. 
VII.  On  the  Reward  in  the  next  World  for  observing  the 
two  chief  Festivals.  VIII.  Of  Kings,  High-priests.  What 
Fishes  are  Ormazd's  and  what  Ahriman's.     A  Geographical 


100  THE   MAGI. 

the  play  of  one  and  the  same  force ;  and  then*  aim  was 
to  pierce  through  the  forms  to  the  substance,  and  in  its 
changes,  to  grasp  that  mysterious  principle  that  ever 
eluded  them  in  its  rapid  transformations.  Hence  their 
science  dealt  with  the  occult,  the  magical,  or,  at  least, 
the  mysterious  ;  yet,  its  main  ideas  were  those  to  which 
the  inductive  science  of  the  modern  world  seems  to  be 
slowly  working  its  cautious  and  toilsome  way,  to  prove 
which  seems  now  the  far-off  goal  of  its  farthest  aspira- 
tion ;  and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  may  have  been  right 
when  he  said,   "A  magician,  according  to  the  Persian 

Section.  IX.  A  Code  for  Kings  and  Governors.  On 
Workmanship  of  various  Kinds.  On  the  Sin  of  Lying.  X. 
On  Metaphysics,  Natural  Philosophy,  Divinity.  XI.  Ou 
the  Reign  of  Gustasp,  his  Conversion  to  Religion,  and  its 
Propagation  by  him  throughout  the  World.  XII.  The  Na- 
ture of  the  Divine  Being.  The  Zoroastrian  Faith  ;  Duties 
enjoined  by  it.  On  Obedience  due  to  the  King.  On  Re- 
wards for  good  Actions  in  the  other  World,  and  how  to  be 
saved  from  Hell.  The  Structure  of  the  World,  Agricul- 
ture, Botany.  On  the  Classes  of  the  Nation,  Rulers,  War- 
riors, Agriculturists,  Traders,  and  Workmen.  XIII.  Ou 
the  Miracles  of  Zoroaster.  XIV.  On  Human  Life,  from  its 
Birth  up  to  its  End,  and  to  the  Day  of  Resurrection.  On  the 
Causes  of  Man's  Birth  ;  why  some  are  born  in  Wealth,  others 
in  Poverty.  XV.  The  Praise  of  angel-like  Men.  XVI 
Code  of  Laws,  what  is  allowed  and  what  prohibited.  XVII. 
Medicine,  Astronomy,  Midwifery.  XVIII.  On  Marriage 
between  near  Relatives,  Zoology  and  Treatment  of  Animals. 
XIX.  Civil  and  Criminal  Laws,  Boundaries  of  Countries. 
On  the  Resurrection.  XX.  Ou  the  Removal  of  Unclean- 
ness,  from  which  great  Defects  arise  in  the  World.  XXI. 
Ou  the  Creation  :  its  Wonders  and  Structures. 


THE    MAGI.  101 

word,  is  no  other  than  Divinorum  cultor  ef  intevpres^  a 
studious  observer  and  expounder  of  divine  things,  and 
that  art  itself  (I  mean  the  art  of  natural  magic)  no  other 
quam  naturalis  philosophicie  ahsoluta  consummation 
than  the  absolute  perfection  of  natural  philosophy." 

The  word  Magic,  common  to  many  languages,  is 
curious  evidence  that  the  Magi  sometimes  abused  their 
propensity  to  search  into  mysterious  things.  Pliny 
says,  "  Beyond  all  doubt  in  Persia,  from  Zoroaster,  as 
all  authors  agree,  arose  magic  — fraudulentissima 
artiiim  —  the  most  delusive  of  arts."  But  he  admits 
that  it  was  born  of  the  medical  art,  and  made  its  way 
veliit  altiorem  sanctioremque  medicinam,  —  "  as  a 
very  high  and  sacred  art  of  healing ;  "  and  that  it 
blended  with  it  "  natural  philosophy  and  religion,  and 
so  bound  men  in  a  triple  chain."  ^ 

Magic  arts  are  as  old  as  superstition.  Where  the 
one  was  in  the  ancient  world  —  and  it  was  everywhere 
—  there  was  the  other.  The  Magi  were  from  imme- 
morial time.  Their  rites  were  conversant  with  the 
secrets  of  nature,  and  with  spirits,  genii,  apd  angels. 
Hence  mao-ic  was  thouoht  to  have  orio^inated  with 
them.  But  assuredly  they  did  not  originate  the  magic 
of  Egypt,  or  of  India.  Their  invocations  of  the  ele- 
ments, of  the  powers  of  nature,  of  beneficent  spirits, 
genii,  or  angels,  was  white  magic,  resorted  to  to  counter- 
act the  power  of  demons.  Black  magic  —  evil  spells, 
wicked  enchantments,  invocation  of  devils,  marked  the 

^  See  Pliny's  Nat.  Hist.,  lib.  xxx. 


102  THE   MAGI. 

followers  of  Ahriman,  and  were  forbidden  in   the  Zen- 
davesta. 

The  moral  pre-eminence  of  the  Magi  above  the 
ancient  heathen  priesthoods  was  chiefly  owing  to  the 
spirituality  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion.  Into  its  other 
causes  it  is  in  vain  to  inquire  minutely.  Something  of 
it  must  have  been  due  to  the  providential  ordering  of 
events  in  the  unknown  of  their  history ;  something  to 
earnest  and  good  men,  whose  record  on  earth  has 
perished ;  and  it  may  have  been  in  part  owing  to  the 
fact  that,  unlike  the  other  ancient  nations,  the  Medes 
and  Persians  had  no  grand  and  imposing  system  of  tem- 
ple-worship. For,  hke  the  castles  of  the  nobles  in  the 
Dark  Ages,  the  temples  of  the  heathen  priesthoods  were 
the  strongholds  by  means  of  which  they  gained  and 
kept  much  of  their  power.  The  shrine,  hallowed  by 
the  present  god,  lent  them  something  of  its  awe-in- 
spiring power,  and  this  power  they  were  tempted  to 
maintain  and  auo^ment  bv  artifice  and  trick.  Herodotus 
says  the  Persians  had  no  temples.^  This  has  been  de- 
nied, but  from  his  point  of  view  he  was  right.  He 
was  thinking  of  shrines  enriched  with  the  gifts  of  kings, 
the  wealth  of  nations,  with  choirs  of  ministering  priests, 
and  throngs  of  devotees  ;  of  vast  edifices,  such  as  he  had 
seen  in  all  his  travels  in  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  Egypt, 
and  Babylon  ;  —  a  fire-chapel,  with  no  images,  no  array 
of  robed  priests,  no  crowd  of  worshippers,  no  imposing 
ceremonial,  he  did  not  think  a  Temple.^ 

^  Herodotus,  book  i.  131. 

^  This  idea  is  very  well  illustrated,  as  well  as  confirmed 


THE   MAGI.  103 

The  high  religious  function  of  the  Persian  monarch, 
and  the  free  genius  of  the  people  —  of  all  Asiatics  the 
least  likely  to  become  the  slaves  of  their  priests  —  re- 
pressed in  the  Magi  that  insatiate  lust  for  power  which 
led  the  priesthood  in  some  ancient  nations  to  attempt  to 
overawe  the  throne,  and  to  enslave  the  popular  mind.^ 
The  Magi  had  no  element  of  power  for  personal  ends 
like  the  shrine  of  Delphos,  or  of  Thebes.  Like  the 
Jews,  at  times,  they  were  infected  with  idolatry ;  they 
were  guilty  of  some  dark  and  cruel  deeds  ;  their  re- 
ligion had  a  tinge  of  element  worship,  a  taint  of  poly- 
theism ;  yet  from  superstitious  and  idolatrous  practices, 
they  could  draw  little  power  compared  with  the  priests 
of  other  nations.  Their  temptations  were  less,  their 
faith  was  more  spiritual. 

As  there  is  in  the  character  of  each  nation  something, 
often  very  undefinable,  that  differentiates  it  from  that 
of  every  other  nation,  so  there  is  in  the  great  religious 
orders  of  the  ancient  world,  —  as  there  is  in  those  of 
Christendom.  This  may  be  owing  to  an  evident  excess 
or  deficiency  in  some  common  element,  to  some  well- 
known  national  trait,  or  to  something  peculiar  in  origin, 

by  this  sentence  from  Eraser's  History  of  Persia,  ch.  iv. 
"  The  Parsees  have  no  temples.  The  Atish-Khiidars  are 
merely  edifices  for  guarding  the  sacred  fire  from  defilement 
or  pollution." 

^  Under  Smerdis  the  Magi  seem  to  have  made  one  grand 
effort  in  that  direction,  and  afterwards  to  have  rested  in 
their  appropriate  calling. 


104  THE  MAGI. 

history,  or  aim,  and  so  at  once  be  clear  to  the  mind; 
but  oftentimes  this  element  of  difference  is  an  intanc^i- 
ble,  an  almost  inexpressible,  thing,  for  our  first  clear 
perception  of  which  we  may  be  as  much  indebted  to 
chance,  as  to  patience  of  thought,  —  as  we  sometimes 
mark  what  we  are  looking  to  find,  by  a  glance  of  the 
eye  in  the  midst  of  diligent  searching.  It  may  be  felt 
rather  than  known,  but  a  difference  there  always  is ; 
no  two  are  just  alike ;  and  this  distinguishing  differ- 
ence is  usually  their  most  valuable  or  interesting  charac- 
teristic. What,  then,  was  the  distinguishing  character- 
istic of  the  Magi  ? 

In  all  the  religious  orders  of  the  ancient  heathen 
world,  there  was  somewhat  of  a  scientific  and  of  a 
philosophic  spirit.  Their  temples  were  colleges,  as  well 
as  shrines.  The  Magi,  also,  were  learned  ;  but  their 
spirit  was  not  distinctively  the  scientific.  They  were 
philosophers  ;  but  their  spirit  was  not  distinctively  the 
philosophical.  Science  seeks  fur  law  in  natural  phe- 
nomena, and,  finding  this,  seeks  no  further.  Philoso- 
phy seeks  for  abstract  truth,  a  mere  notion  of  the 
mind.  There  is  a  spirit  that  avails  itself  of  science 
and  philosophy  for  an  end  beyond  either ;  a  spirit 
that  would  pierce  into  the  secrets  of  the  Being  who  is 
above  nature,  and  who  gives  to  truth,  reality.  Some- 
thing of  this  spirit  was  the  distinguishing  character- 
istic of  the  Magi.  In  nature  they  ever  sought  for 
revelations  of  the  supernatural ;  in  human  affairs,  of 
the  superhuman. 


THE   MAGI.  105 

Now  this  spirit  may  be  in  alliance  with  that  fear  of 
the  Lord  which  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom,  or  with 
unhallowed  presumption.  It  may  seek  for  God  in  the 
spirit  of  Babel  or  of  Bethel,  of  Balaam  or  of  Elijah. 
There  is  no  sufficient  evidence  of  holiness  of  heart  in 
thoughts  that  "wander  through  eternity,"  aspiring  to 
the  highest  mysteries.  They  are  evidence  only  of  a 
sensitiveness  to  spiritual  impressions.  They  are  the 
outworkings  of  a  temperament  that  may  determine 
either  to  superstition  or  to  reverence,  that  may  belong 
to  a  wizard,  or  to  a  prophet.  And  no  doubt,  there 
would  be  abounding  evidence  of  this  in  the  history  of 
the  order  of  the  Magi,  were  it  as  complete  as  it  is,  and 
ever  must  be,  imperfect. 

The  Magi  were  priests  of  the  most  philosophical  and 
profound  of  the  religions  of  the  world ;  yet  from  the 
first,  and  at  their  best  estate,  there  must  have  been  two 
tendencies  at  work  in  them,  —  for  such  is  the  nature  of 
man  —  one  towards  the  earthly,  one  towards  the  spir- 
itual. During  their  comparative  depression,  while  the 
Persians  were  ruled  by  alien  tribes,  and  their  religion 
was  losing  much  of  its  simplicity  and  purity,  both  may 
have  grown  intense ;  so  that  when  the  coming  of  the 
Redeemer  drew  nigh,  as  among  the  Jews,  so  among 
the  Magi,  the  few  may  have  grown  more  spiritual,  as 
the  many  grew  more  earthly. 

But  there  were  then  on  earth,  none,  from  whom  so 
appropriately  might  have  come  the  witnesses  of  the 
grace  of  God  to  all  the  earth.     As  there  was  an  ele- 


106  THE   MAGI. 

ment  of  faith  in  the  relio'ion  and  science  of  the  Mao^i, 
as  in  the  realms  of  matter  and  of  spirit  they  sought 
for  the  divine,  as  some  of  them  aimed  at  dominion 
over  nature,  though  with  impossible  aspirations,  yet 
with  good  ends,  it  accords  with  the  harmonies  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Grace,  that  God  led  Magi  to  the  True 
Magician. 


PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   IIEBEEWS.  107 


CHAPTEE    V. 

PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS. 

Though  Asia  is  distinguished  from  Europe  by  en- 
thusiasm, though  it  has  ever  been  a  land  of  seers  and 
f)rophets,  true  or  false,  a  land  of  vows,  and  shrines  and 
pilgrimages  ;  though  the  long  sanctity  of  Jerusalem  made 
it  —  longe  clar^issima  urbium  Orientis,  7io)i  Jiuleoe 
modo^ —  by  far  the  most  illustrious  city,  not  of  Judea 
only,  but  of  all  Syria  ;  yet  a  Persian  pilgrimage  to  Jeru- 
salem would  be  wanting  in  historic  credibility,  if  the 
Persians  knew  nothing  of  the  Hebrews  :  on  the  other 
hand,  if  they  knew  them  well,  or  even  nations  well 
acquainted  with  them,  then,  in  view  of  the  Hebrew  pre- 
vision of  the  Messiah,  such  a  pilgrimage  is  possible. 

Of  the  countries  west  of  the  Euphrates  neither  the 
Persians  nor  the  Medes  could  have  had  much,  if  any, 
personal  knowledge,  before  the  wars  that  resulted  in  the 
Persian  Empire.  These  opened  the  Magian  mind  to 
foreign  influences,  and  enlarged  its  circle  of  thought. 
They  brought  the  Magi  in  contact  with  races,  among 
whom  there  were  sacred  traditions  of  high  antiquity  ; 
and  a  word  or  two,  as  to  some  facts  of  this  kind,  may 

^  Pliny,  Xat,  Plist,  lib.  v.  15. 


108  PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS. 

well  introduce  what  I  have  to  say  of  their  acquaintance 
with  the  Hebrews. 

The  earlier  conquests  of  the  Medes,  and  afterwards 
of  the  Persians,  led  them  into  the  Great  Plain  of  the 
Tigris  and  the  Euphrates.  One  of  the  earliest  perma- 
nent settlements  of  the  human  race  was  in  that  ever- 
afterwards  historic  Plain  ;  and  somewhere  between  those 
Rivers  was  the  cradle  of  the  Hebrew  race  :  —  as  lan- 
guage witnesses,  —  for  one  of  the  languages  of  that 
region,  the  Aramaic,  was  like  that  of  the  Hebrews,  and, 
in  the  time  of  their  Captivity,  it  became  the  language 
spoken  by  them.  There  the  sacred  traditions  that 
crossed  the  Flood,  came  down  in  an  unbroken  line  to 
their  great  Ancestor ;  and  there  "  in  IMesopotamia,  in 
the  land  of  the  Chaldeans,  the  God  of  glory  appeared 
unto  Abraham."^ 

As  the  sacred  memories  known  to  him  —  the  same 
written  in  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis  —  were  not  lost 
in  his  family  in  its  long  sojourn  in  Egypt,  why  should 
they  have  been  wholly  lost,  for  a  long  time,  in  Chaldea? 
Abraham's  father,  Terah,  and  brother,  Nachor,  "  served 
other  gods  ;  "  ^  but  this  is  not  altogether  inconsistent 
with  their  retaining  much  of  primal  tradition  ;  and  the 
notion  that  they  were  utterly  given  over  to  idolatry, 
agrees  not  with  Abraham's  saying,  in  his  old  age,  to 
"the  eldest  servant  of  his  house,  go  unto  my  country 
and  to  my  kindred,  and  take  a  wife  unto  my  son  Isaac."  ^ 


^  See  Acts  vii.  2,  4.  "  Joshua  xxiv.  2. 

^  Gen.  xxiv.  2?  4« 


PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS.  109 

Isaac,  too,  in  his  old  age,  sent  Jacob  to  the  forefathers' 
land ;  and  there,  all  the  Fathers  of  the  Twelve  Tribes 
save  one,  were  born. 

The  children  of  Abraham  dwelt  far  westward  of  "  the 
land  of  their  kindred  ;  "  and,  for  a  long  time,  it  is  seen 
no  more  on  the  sacred  page ;  but  when  seen  again,  it  is 
instructive  to  mark  the  appearing  of  something  hinting 
affinity  between  the  people  by  the  rivers  of  Mesopota- 
mia, and  the  Hebrews.  To  a  man  of  Gath-hepher, 
of  the  tribe  of  Zebulon,  a  dweller  by  what  was  after- 
wards called  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  came  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  Go  and  warn  the  people  of  Nineveh.  That  this 
command  seemed  strange  to  a  Hebrew,  may  well  be 
inferred  from  Jonah's  flight  from  the  presence  of  the 
Lord  ;  but  far  more  strange  it  would  have  been,  had 
there  not  been  something  in  the  history  of  his  people 
tending  to  explain  it ;  and  such  appears,  if,  as  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  and  none  to  doubt,  the  wonders 
of  their  story,  which  now  reverberate  through  all  the 
world,  rolled  in  ancient  times  through  all  the  East. 
This,  in  part,  explains  the  sending  of  Jonah  to  the 
men  of  Nineveh,  and  the  power  of  his  warnings. 
Their  fathers  had  told  them  of  him  who  went  forth  out 
of  Mesopotamia,  and  of  the  wondrous  fortunes  of  his 
race ;  they  had  listened  long  for  some  voice  to  speak  to 
them  from  those  high  places,  where  this  mysterious 
people  worshipped ;  and  when,  at  last,  a  Hebrew, 
marshalled  by  no  array  of  miracles,  but  mighty  in  the 
traditional  glory  of  his  lineage,  preached  to  them  re- 
pentance, Nineveli  believed  God. 


110  PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBllEWS. 

The  fact  that  Babylon  was  in  that  part  of  the  world 
from  whence  their  sacred  traditions  came  to  the  He- 
brews, together  with  that  of  the  extreme  antiquity  of 
the  city,  becomes  of  some  interest  to  us,  when  the 
Magi  become  acquainted  with  those  "  wise  men "  of 
Babylon,  called  Chaldeans,  alike  in  sacred  and  in  pro- 
fjine  history.^  Though  it  is  only  a  little  while  before 
the  Captivity  that  in  the  Scriptures  Babylon  is  "  the 
beauty  of  the  Chaldee's  excellency,"^  it  is  also  named 
as  a  City  in  the  third  generation  after  the  Patriarch 
Noah ;  ^  and  it  was  received  as  a  fact  among  the  Greeks, 
that  for  1903  years  before  its  conquest  by  Alexander 
the  Great  (B.  C.  331),  astronomical  observations  had 
been  made  and  recorded  in  that  city.*     This   seems  to 

^  Who  the  Chaldean  people  were,  and  whether  they  found- 
ed Babylon,  or  possessed  it  by  conquest,  are  questions  more 
or  less  in  doubt ;  but  it  seems  certain  that  they  adopted  the 
language  of  the  Babylonian  region,  and  that  "  the  tongue  of 
the  Chaldeans  "  (Dan.  i.  4),  hke  the  Latin  language  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  at  length  became  the  exclusive  possession  of 
the  learned  class,  from  this  fact  called  Chaldeans. 

^  Isa.  xiii.  19. 

3  Gen.  X.  10. 

^  It  is  at  least  remarkable  that  these  two  dates  give  the 
year  B.  C.  2234,  which  the  Chaldean  Berosus  fixes  upon  as 
the  commencement  of  the  Chaldean  Dynasty  in  Babylon. 
See  Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  Essay  vi.  Grote  (History 
of  Greece,  part  ii.  ch.  xix.),  in  a  valuable  note,  says, 
"  The  earliest  Chaldean  astronomical  observation  known  to 
the  astronomer  Ptolemy,  botli  precise  and  of  ascertained 
date  to  a  degree  sufficient  for  scientific  use,  was  a  lunar 
eclipse    of  the    19th    of   March,    721    B.  C.  .  .  .  That   the 


PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND    HEBREWS.  Ill 

prove,  there  must  have  ever  been  in  that  ancient  city  a 
learned  class  with  an  unbroken  succession ;  and  — 
whether  the  learned  "  Chaldeans  "  were  coeval  with  the 
city  or  not  —  in  ancient  times  the  learned  and  the 
priestly  class  were  the  same,  and  as  the  Chaldeans  pre- 
served the  scientific,  so  they  must  have  preserved,  also, 
the  sacred  traditions  of  Babylon  and  the  region  round 
about ;  and  thus  their  sacred  traditions  must  have, 
more  or  less,  resembled  those  that  came  down  throuo'h 
the  Patriarchs  to  the  Hebrews. 

By  the  Greeks,  the  Chaldeans  were  sometimes  spoken 


Chaldeans  had  been,  long  before  this  period,  in  the  habit  of 
observing  the  heavens,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt ;  and  the 
exactness  of  those  observations  cited  by  Ptolemy  implied 
(according  to  the  judgment  of  Ideler)  long  previous  practice. 
.  .  .  There  seem  to  have  been  Chaldean  observations,  both 
made  and  recorded,  of  much  greater  antiquity  than  721 
B.  C,  though  we  cannot  lay  much  stress  on  the  date  of  1903 
anterior  to  Alexander  the  Great,  which  is  mentioned  by 
Simplicius  (ad  Aristot.  de  Coelo,  p.  123)  as  being  the  earliest 
period  of  the  Chaldean  observations  sent  from  Babylon  by 
Callisthenes  to  Aristotle.  Ideler  thinks  that  the  Chaldean 
observations,  anterior  to  721  B.  C,  were  useless  to  astrono- 
mers from  the  want  of  some  fixed  era,  or  definite  cycle,  to 
identify  the  date  of  each  of  them.  ...  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  Ptolemy  always  cited  the  Chaldean  observations  as 
made  by  '  the  Chaldeans^*  never  naming  any  individual ; 
though,  in  all  the  other  observations  to  which  he  alludes,  he 
is  very  scrupulous  in  particularizing  the  name  of  the  ob- 
server. Doubtless  he  found  the  Chaldean  observations 
registered  in  just  this  manner." 


112  PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS. 

of  as  a  kind  of  Magi,^  from  some  general  resemblance 
as  diviners ;  and  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  in  rendering  the  terms  that  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel  denote  the  classes  of  the  Wise  Men  of  Babylon, 
uses  the  term  Man^i.^    There  is  nothinor  in  the  Hebrew 

CD  O 

that  authorizes  this,  and  it  may  have  come  from  the 
difficulty  of  finding  in  the  Greek,  words  answering  to 
the  five  distinctions  in  the  Hebrew  text.  No  doubt  this 
use  of  the  word  for  persons  living  in  the  East,  was  one 
of  the  reasons  why  St.  Matthew,  when  he  used  the  title 
Magi,  added  to  it  "from  the  Far  East."^ 

Still,  in  itself,  it  is  probable  that,  long  before  the  time 
of  Cyrus,  there  were  some  of  the  true  Magi  in  multi- 
tudinous Babylon.  For  Magian  rites  were  known  as 
far    west    as    Jerusalem    before    the    captivity ;  *    and 

^  So  Hesychius.  la  the  Greek  version  of  Gen.  xli.  8,  by 
Symmachus,  the  word  Magi  is  foiiDd  where  the  LXX.  read 
interpreters  ;  and  the  English  version  reads,  Pharaoh  "  called 
for  all  the  magicians  of  Egypt,  and  all  the  wise  men  thereof." 

The  evidence  tending  to  prove  the  learned  Chaldeans  a 
species  of  Magi,  is  in  resemblances  that  prove  nothing,  and 
in  the  fact  that  when  "  the  king  of  Jerusalem  and  his  men 
of  war  fled  forth  out  of  the  city,"  and  "  all  the  princes  of 
the  king  of  Babylon  came  and  sat  in  the  middle  gate,"  with 
them  came  one,  styled  Rab-mag,  a  title  in  which  the  Persian 
word  for  priest  is  thought  to  appear,  though  this  is  very 
doubtful.     Jer.  xxxix.  3,  4. 

2  Dan.  i.  20  ;  ii.  2,  27 ;  iv.  4. 

^  The  Septuagint  seems  to  have  been  In  common  use 
with  the  Palestinian  Jews,  as  well  as  with  those  of  other 
countries. 

*  See  ch.  iii.  pp.  88,  89. 


PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND    HEBREWS.  113 

throughout  Western  Asia,  even  in  times  ahiiost  beyond 
the  reach  of  history,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  degree 
of  intercourse  and  of  mutual  influence  ;  social,  political, 
and  religious  resemblances  ;  and  wars,  conquests,  and 
dynasties,  whose  memory  has  nearly  or  quite  perished.^ 

The  order  of  the  Chaldeans  continued  under  the 
Persians ;  for  when  Alexander  made  his  entry  into 
Babylon,  part  of  its  citizens,  says  Quintus  Curtius, 
crowded  together  on  the  wall,  eager  to  see  the  new 
monarch,  and  a  still  greater  multitude  went  forth  to 
meet  him  ;  of  these  were  the  Magi  —  suo  more  ^atrium 
carmen  canentes  —  "  accordino;  to  their  custom  sino^ins: 
their  ancient  hymns  ;  "  after  whom  the  Chaldeans,  with 
their  instruments  of  music,  came.  He  describes  these 
as  priests  of  the  Babylonians,  and  savans,  who  taught 
the  times  and  motions  of  the  stars. ^ 

When  Alexander  entered  Babylon,  he  doubtless  felt 
as  we  all  feel,  that  then  he  was  monarch  of  the  East  — 
so  much  by  far  the  greatest  city  of  the  Persian  Empire 
was  Babylon.  Even  under  the  Persians,  the  Chaldeans 
there  could  not  have  been  much  inferior  to  the  Magi ; 
and  Cyrus  and  his  successors,  no  doubt,  gave  the 
learned  and  religious  order  of  the  Imperial  City  ^  some- 

^  Chedorlaomer's  expeditioQ  from  beyond  the  Tigris  to 
the  Dead  Sea,  illustrates  this,  (Gen.  xiv.  1-5)  ;  and  the 
statement  of  Berosus,  that  the  first  Dynasty  in  Babylon,  was 
Median. 

^  Historia  Alexandri  Magni,  lib.  v.  1.  Chaldeei,  Baby- 
loniorumque  non  vates  modo,  sed  etiam  artifices  .  .  .  side- 
rum  motus  et  status  temporum  vices  ostendere. 

^  It  was  the  residence  of  the  Persian  court  for  part  of  the 
year.  8 


114  PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   IIEBllEWS. 

thing  of  the  consideration  they  gave  the  learned  and 
religious  order  of  their  empire.^ 

The  traditions  of  the  Chaldeans  were  more  like  those 
of  the  Hebrews  than  were  those  of  any  people  except 
the  Persians  —  a  fact  not  inconsistent  with  their  gross 
idolatry.  With  a  corrupt  worship,  much  historical  re- 
ligious truth  may  long  be  preserved.  In  the  ancient 
nations  much  of  true  religion  survived,  side  by  side 
with  false  religion  ;  but  the  imposing  ceremonial  and 
enduring  monuments  of  the  corrupt,  popular  worship 
receive  a  larger  place  in  history,  than  the  less  imposing 
truth,  which  they  now  overshadow  historically,  as  once 
they  did  really,  and  in  every  way  tend  to  efface  from 
the  human  memory. 

Whatever  the  relations  of  Magi  and  Chaldeans  be- 
fore the  Persian  conquest,  after  that  epoch,  in  spite  of 
the  rivalry,  jealousy,  and  contention  there  must  have 
been  between  them,  they  more  or  less  fraternized  in 
Babylon;  for  in  those  days,  the  wise  sought  knowl- 
edge, not  so  much  from  books,  as  in  the  truer  mode  of 
intercourse  with  the  wise ;  and  the  fragments  of  Chal- 
dean philosophy  show  a  likeness  to  that  of  the  Magi 
caused  by,  or  the  cause  of,  much  intercourse  between 
them. 

This  is  the  more  probable  when  we  consider  the  ef- 
fect on  the  Magi  of  the  change  relatively  to  the  civiliza- 
tions of  the  world,  wrought  for  them  by  the  wars  that 

^  Under  the  Greeks  the  Chaldeans,  like  the  Magi,  lost 
caste  ;  and  in  the  Western  world,  their  name  also  was  at 
length  assumed  hy  those  who  made  it  a  reproach. 


PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND    HEBliEWS.  115 

began  with  Cyrus.  The  day  of  Persian  glory,  ushered 
in  by  his  martial  genius,  was  full  of  rousing  events. 
If  noio  the  Persians  were  to  come  forth  from  their  high- 
lands, possess  again  the  Plain  of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates,  seize  Damascus,  Bey  root,  and  Jerusalem  ; 
hold  Alexandria,  the  Suez  Canal  and  the  valley  of  the 
Kile,  it  would  electrify  the  world ;  yet  it  would  not 
equal  the  exploits  of  Cyrus  and  Cambyses.  The  cities 
they  stormed  and  took  were  greater,  they  overran 
countries  more  thickly  peopled,  the  civilizations  they 
beheld  were  more  gorgeous,  the  shock  of  ideas  greater. 
But  for  the  fable  of  India,  and  for  Athens,  the  Persian 
Empire  embraced  all  there  was  of  civilization.  For 
one  brilliant  moment  the  Persian,  like  the  Greek  after- 
w^ards,  and  the  Roman,  at  a  still  later  day,  was  the 
central  man  of  the  world.  It  is  not  given  us  to  call 
up  with  equal  vividness  his  elder  empire ;  yet  the  Per- 
sian, thouofh  as  the  elder  his  civilization  was  less 
varied,  is  not  less  worthy  of  study  than  the  Greek  or 
the  Roman ;  and,  in  influence  on  the  course  of  human 
events,  is  next  to  the  Hebrew. 

That  early  cycle  of  civilization,  which  included  Egypt, 
Assyria,  Babylonia,  and  Persia,  was  characterized  by 
power.  All  its  monuments  are  colossal.  In  Titanic 
strength  the  Persian  was  not  equal  to  the  Egyptian,  or 
to  the  Chaldean ;  in  intellect  he  was  their  superior. 
The  Majrian  relioion  is  a  more  wonderful  fact  than  the 
wall  of  Babylon.  It  is  a  monument  to  the  Magian 
intellect,  lasting  as  the  Pyramids  ;  and  we  may  be  sure 
the  men  who  wrought  out  this  religion,  felt  the  mental 


116  PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS. 

excitement  of  the  stirring  period  of  the  Persian  Empire, 
may  be  sure,  their  quick,  inquisitive,  appreciating  eyes 
marked  the  confluence  of  streams  of  truth  in  Babylon, 
the  meeting  there  of  agreeing  lines  of  old-world  tra- 
ditions, and  earnestly  searched  into  their  resemblances 
and  differences. 

'^^The  king  of  Babylon  made  a  Hebrew,  the  President 
of  the  Chaldeans.  The  Chaldee  passed,  the  Persian 
came.  The  Magi  took  the  place  of  the  Chaldeans,  as 
the  imperial  order ;  the  new  monarch  raised  the  same 
Hebrew  to  a  rank  above  both ;  and  these  learned  and 
religious  orders  were  brought  together,  in  the  metropo- 
lis of  the  world,  under  the  same  illustrious  foreigner. 
Then  to  the  Magi,  who  brought  with  them  the  traditions 
of  Bactria,  far  in  the  East,  were  brought  the  traditions 
of  Judea,  far  in  the  West ;  and,  at  this  epoch  in  its 
history,  this  order  embodied  the  wisdom  of  the  East 
—  Bactrian,  Median,  Persian,  Chaldean,  Aramean,  and 
Hebraic. 

The  thouerht  we  have  s^iven  to  the  relations  of  the 
IVIaori  with  the  Chaldeans,  recalls  how  much  of  truth 
must  have  survived  in  Western  Asia  in  the  day  of 
Cyrus  ;  how  events  then  liberalized  the  Magian  mind, 
and  opened  it  to  quick  and  deep  impressions  ;  but  these 
things  have  for  us  only  a  general  interest.  No  doubt 
the  Magi  compared  their  own  religion,  even  as  their 
science  and  art,  with  that  of  the  Babylonians  ;  but  their 
own  reminiscences  of  the  truth  were  more  truthful, 
and  their  religion  more  pure  ;  yet  these  researches  may 


PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS.  117 

have  fitted  some  of  them  to  mark  and  appreciate  the 
fact  that  this  was  reversed,  when  they  came  to  search 
into  the  faith  of  the  race  of  Abraham. 

In  the  historic  cycles  of  the  ancient  world,  wherever 
the  centre  of  power  is,  there  the  Hebrew  is  sure  to  be, 
and  sure  to  draw  to  himself  the  chief  interest.  So  it 
is  on  the  shores  of  the  Nile,  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon, 
and  in  the  palace  of  the  Great  King  in  Shushan.  With 
this  people  the  true  interest  of  history  begins ;  and 
it  seems  ordained  that  it  shall  never  afterwards  be 
wholly  separate  from  them.  The  predestined  end  of 
the  culture  of  the  Greeks,  was  reached  when  Hebrew 
Evangelists  and  Apostles  made  their  language  imperish- 
able ;  and  the  most  interesting  ruin  in  Rome  is  the 
arch  commemorating  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem,  so  closely 
connected  with  its  own.  Is  Babylon,  then,  the  centre 
and  height  of  dominion?  the  Hebrew  will  be  there. 
Is  another  world-power  rising  on  its  ruin?  there  he 
will  be  also. 

The  king  of  Assyria,  who  carried  away  the  Ten 
Tribes  as  captives^  into  the  East  (B.  C.  721),  colonized 
some  of  them  in  towns  of  his  subjects,  the  Medes. 
A  little  more  than  a  century  afterwards  the  king  of 
Babylon  led  away  captive  the  people  of  Judea.^  "By 
the  rivers  of  Babylon  there  they  sat  down,  yea,  they 
wept  when  they  remembered  Zion."  In  that  same 
hour,  beyond  the  eastern  mountains   that  looked  down 

^  2  Kings  xvii.  6.  ^  2  Kings  xxv.  8,  11. 


118  PERSIANS,    CHALDEANS,    AND   HEBREWS. 

on  the  scene  of  their  exile,  the  Lord  was  preparing  the 
humiliation  of  their  oppressors,  and  their  restoration  to 
the  Holy  City  by  him,  whom  in  a  preceding  genera- 
tion he  had  foretold  by  name  —  "  Cyrus,  the  Man  from 
the  Far  East." 


DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI.  119 


CHAPTER   VI. 


DANIEL   AND   THE   MAGI. 


Cyrus  made  a  royal  decree  that  the  Temple  of  God 
in  Jerusalem  should  be  rebuilt.  Few  facts  in  history 
are  more  certain  and  less  likely  than  this.  For  the 
country  of  the  Jews  was  far  off  and  small.  Their  num- 
bers were  inconsiderable.  Their  lano^uao^e  was  unintel- 
ligible  to  Cyrus.  He  knew  them  only  as  slaves  of 
those  he  himself  had  enslaved. 

Palestine,  a  high  entrenched  fort  on  the  borders  of  the 
Great  Western  Sea,  commanding  the  approaches  to  and 
from  Egypt,  was  invaluable  to  the  security  of  their  Em- 
pire, if  garrisoned  by  a  people  bound  to  the  Persians  by 
strong  ties  of  gratitude  ;  but  this  did  not  appear  until  wars 
and  reverses  later  than  the  reign  of  Cyrus.  His  decree 
was  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple  only.  It  was  not 
until  the  fourth  reign  afterwards  that  Persia  suffered  the 
Jews  to  inclose  the  strong  site  of  Jerusalem  with  a  wall. 
Until  this  was  done  neither  the  Temple,  nor  the  small 
population  that  gathered  round  it,  was  safe  from  ene- 
mies round  about,  —  from  the  Samaritan,  and  from 
the  Ammonite,  from  the  Philistine  and  from  the  Arab.^ 

1  Neh.  iv.  7. 


120  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

Not  until  they  had  once  more  a  stronghold  could  the 
Jews,  or  their  enemies,  feel  they  were  again  a  people. 
Hence  the  bitter  wrath  of  their  foes  at  the  building  of 
the  ^Vall,  and  the  haste  of  the  work  "  when  the  build- 
ers, every  one,  had  his  sword  girded  by  his  side,"  and 
half  of  the  men  "  labored  in  the  w^ork,  and  half  of  them 
held  the  spears,  from  the  rising  of  the  morning  till  the 
stars  appeared.^"  In  those  days,  there  could  no  more  be 
a  city  without  walls  tlian  without  people  ;  and  the  time 
of  the  building  of  the  wall  was  the  date  of  the  renewal 
of  Jerusalem.  Not,  therefore,  from  the  decree  for  the 
rebuilding  of  the  Temple,  but  from  the  time  of  the 
decree  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  Wall,  through  which  Je- 
rusalem became  once  more  a  capital,  and  the  Jews  a 
nation,  the  "seven  and  three  score  and-  two  weeks"  of 
the  Great  Prophecy  measured  to  "  the  Messiah,  the 
Prince.^ "  In  that  prophecy  it  was  revealed  to  Daniel 
that  the  Wall  should  be  rebuilt,  "  even  in  troublous 
times,"  and  it  was  rebuilt  in  times  that  were  so,  not  only 
for  the  Jews,  but  for  Persia  as  well.  For  the  decree, 
that  Jerusalem  should  be  a  City,  seems  to  have  grow^n 
out  of  the  facts  that  the  Persians  had  not  only  lost,  as 
subjects,  all  the  Greek  sailors  of  tlie  coast  of  Asia  Minor 
and  the  adjacent  islands,  but  had  agreed  not  to  come 
within  three  days'  journey  of  the  sea;  and,  therefore, 
strong  reasons  of  state  policy  dictated  their  permission 
to  fortify  their  almost  impregnable,  inland  site  of  Jeru- 
salem.    Until  these  disasters,  the  state  policy  of  Persia 

\Neh.  iv.  18,21.  2  Dau.  ix.  25. 


DANIEL   AND   THE   IHAGI.  121 

was  rather  regardless  of  the  Jews,  as  a  people  of  small 
account,  if  not  distrustful  of  them.  It  was  not  until, 
in  a  measure,  compelled  by  circumstances,  that  they 
were  willing  to  trust  them  with  power,  and  to  assent  to 
their  having  a  Capital  of  their  own  —  a  trust  of  which 
the  Jews  proved  themselves  worthy.  The  two  edicts 
—  the  one  for  the  building  of  the  Temple,  the  other  for 
the  building  of  the  Wall  of  Jerusalem  —  are  often  con- 
fused together ;  but  they  were  separated  by  the  time  of 
more  than  half  a  century ;  the  latter  grew  out  of  politi- 
cal changes  that  were  subsequent  to  the  former,  and 
was  dictated  by  military  considerations  ;  while  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  military,  and  no  political,  reason 
of  much  w^eight,  that  could  have  moved  to  the  other. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  surmised  that  the  former  decree 
may  have  been  a  boon,  purchased  from  Cyrus  with  a 
bribe  —  to  which  Asiatic  kings  have  usually  been  acces- 
sible ;  but,  apart  from  the  sublime  terms  of  the  decree 
itself,  such  an  idea  fits  onlv  the  late  deo'enerate  stao^es 
of  the  Persian  Empire,  and  does  not  accord  with  the 
hardihood  and  temperance  of  its  uncorrupt  youth,  nor 
with  aught  known  of  its  heroic  founder. 

His  religion  bore  some  resemblance  to  the  Hebrew ; 
but  this  alone  would  not  have  made  a  king,  who  wor- 
shipped Ormazd  in  the  temple  of  the  firmament,  and 
whose  altars  were  the  "  earth  o'er  gazing  mountains " 
of  Iran,  build  for  Jehovah  a  house  in  far  Judea, 
w^hen  such  a  purpose  was  likely  to  provoke  the  scorn,  and 
to  kindle  against  him  the  religious  zeal  of  those  Persians, 
who  destroyed  temples  of  the  Greeks  and  the  gods  of 
Egypt. 


122  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

For  the  remarkable  decree  of  Cyrus,  then,  there  must 
have  been  a  cause  as  remarkable.  From  the  terms  of 
the  decree  itself  it  appears  that  this  was  a  command  of 
God,  —  undoubtedly  that  revealed,  before  Cyrus  was 
born,  to  the  Hebrew  prophet,  Isaiah.  It  was,  then, 
divinely  ordained  and  divinely  foretold ;  but  the  super- 
natural, as  revealed,  is  ever  so  harmoniously  blended 
with  the  natural,  in  a  course  of  events  where  the  two 
are  seen  together,  that  the  better  the  natural,  in  such  a 
case,  is  understood,  the  more  the  supernatural  is  credi- 
ble. Besides  the  fact  of  this  revelation,  the  decree 
seems  to  require  for  its  explanation  the  presence,  at 
the  Persian  court,  of  some  Hebrew,  familiar  with 
palaces  and  clothed  in  power.  For,  between  this  com^ 
mand,  hidden  in  a  foreign  language  and  in  the  books  of 
slaves,  and  its  fulfilment  by  the  King,  there  is  a  gulf, 
which  even  the  imagination  can  hardly  bridge  over. 
That  gulf  is  bridged  over  by  the  preternatural  history 
of  a  man  made  for  the  time,  by  the  fact  that  there 
was  near  that  Persian  monarch  a  Hebrew,  accredited  by 
miracles  and  strong  in  wisdom,  honored  alike  by  the 
Chaldeans,  Nebuchadnezzar  and  Belshazzar,  and  by 
Darius  the  Mede,  Daniel  the  prophet  and  the  sage,  that 
imperial  man,  himself  the  harmony  of  many  diversities, 
whose  strange,  unique  history,  even  to  the  Assyrian 
coloring  and  Babylonian  grandeur  of  his  visions,  is  so 
consistent  with  itself,  and  with  the  world-wide  changes 
and  wonders  among  which  he  lived. 

It  is  not  written  in  the  Scriptures  that  Daniel  had 
aught  to  do  with  the  decree  of  Cyrus ;  but  there  is  no 


DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI.  123 

full  history,  either  of  the  decree,  or  of  Daniel.  We 
know  him  well.  After  Moses,  he  is  the  grandest  and 
the  most  life-like  man  in  the  Hebrew  annals,  —  which 
is  to  say,  in  the  annals  of  mankind ;  yet  we  have  only 
his  visions  framed  in  a  slight  sketch  of  his  life.  As 
would  be  natural  to  an  aged  man,  a  chapter  is  given  to 
his  youth  ;  and  this  is  so  masterly,  so  luminous  a  piece  of 
self-portraiture,  that  it  supplies  all  that  is  needed  of  his 
biography,  and  of  the  times  and  circumstances  in  which 
he  lived,  when  it  is  supplemented  by  the  few  facts  he 
afterwards  relates  of  himself,  and  by  the  brief  historical 
references  interspersed  among  those  visions  and  revela- 
tions, to  preserve  which,  is  the  aim  of  this  memoir.  All 
that  is  written  by  him  is  written  to  the  glory  of  God, 
and  not  of  himself.  It  is  for  this  he  records  his  own 
safety  in  the  den  of  lions ;  for  he  also  records,  so  na- 
turally, how  the  three  companions  of  his  boyhood  were 
safe  in  the  furnace  of  fire.  All  this  unique  memoir  — 
if  such  it  may  be  called  —  with  the  exception  of  its 
opening  page,  recites  open  interventions  of  God,  with 
interpretations  of  them,  or  visions  to  him  revealed;  and 
it  is  not  altogether  within  its  scope  to  relate  the  part  he 
may  have  had  in  obtaining  the  decree  of  Cyrus.  Yet 
there  may  be  an  allusion  to  it ;  and,  if  there  is  so, 
though  very  slight,  it  is  characteristic  of  the  heart 
of  the  man.  The  first  chapter,  which  seems  to  him  suf- 
ficiently to  introduce  those  events  in  his  life  that  he 
feels  he  must  put  on  record  forever,  ends  with  saying,  — 
"  this  Daniel  continued  till  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  the 
Persian."     This  seems  to  me  lihe  the  pointing  of  his 


124  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

hand  to  some  event  in  that  year;  for,  one  of  the  reve- 
lations to  him  is  dated  in  that  king's  third  year ;  and, 
^gain,  at  the  close  of  the  chapter  describing  his  deliver- 
ance from  the  lions,  it  is  added,  "this  Daniel  prospered 
in  the  reign  of  Darius  and  of  Cyrus  the  Persian." 
Now,  it  was  in  that  first  year  of  his  reign  that  Cyrus 
sent  forth  his  decree  to  rebuild  the  Temple. 

Whether  this  be,  or  not,  the  meaning  of  his  pointing 
thus  to  that  ever  memorable  year,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  one  of  the  latest,  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
characteristic  of  all  his  achievements,  was  his  gaining 
from  Cyrus  this  grand  decree.  For  here  the  known  of 
the  history  of  Daniel  points  straight  to  the  unknown. 
He  seems  born  for  this  ;  and  there  was  no  Hebrew,  who 
would  have  dared,  or  been  suiFered  by  his  people,  to 
take  his  place  in  this  matter,  or,  to  whom,  in  his  stead, 
the  King  would  have  listened,  as  an  interpreter  of 
Hebrew  prophecy.  The  presence,  then,  of  Daniel  with 
Cyrus,  no  doubt,  is  the  missing  link  between  the  pro- 
phecy and  its  fulfilment ;  and  thus  the  decree  itself, 
without  him  almost  incredible,  is  one  of  the  facts  in  the 
history  of  the  time,  that  confirms  the  history  of  the 
prophet. 

Vainly  the  Genius  of  Painting  tries  to  shadow  forth 
the  mystery  of  the  last  night  of  Babylon.  When  Bel- 
shazzar  feasted  high  his  thousand  lords,  and  they  drank 
their  wine  from  the  vessels  of  the  Temple  of  God,  and 
j)raiscd  their  images  of  gold  and  of  stone,  and  the 
finjjers  of  a  man's  hand  came  forth  and  wrote  on  the 
wall,  how  well  it  suits  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  sign. 


DANIEL   AND   THE    MAGI.  125 

that  none  but  a  Hebrew  can  read  the  wrltins:  I  How 
well  the  ordering  of  invisible  powers  is  known,  when  the 
last  word  of  Babylon  does  honor  to  a  Hebrew  !  The  his- 
tory of  the  world  is  a  drama  performed  in  the  presence 
of  invisible  spectators  ;  and  the  actors  do  not  understand 
what  they  are  representing.  Belshazzar,  proclaiming 
the  prophet  third  ruler  in  his  realm,  shows,  in  the  last  of 
its  kings,  the  high  spirit  of  the  founders  of  his  empire ; 
yet  in  that  hour  the  greatness  of  Daniel  dwarfs  the 
pillared  glories  of  his  capital,  and  overmatches  all  the 
gods  and  all  the  men  of  Babylon  ;  while  the  whole  scene 
is  the  everlasting  symbol  of  the  world's  glory  and  the 
world's  ruin. 

But,  in  moral  grandeur,  it  equals  not  that  left  untold, 
when,  in  the  palace-temple  of  the  Great  King,  in  the 
presence  of  his  officers  of  state,  who,  in  number  and 
rank,  made  his  court  seem  to  Persia  a  semblance  of  the 
court  on  high,  and  to  God's  representative  on  earth, 
Daniel  interpreted  the  command  of  the  Almighty,  say- 
ing to  the  Conqueror,  by  name,  "I  the  Lord,  who  will 
go  before  thee  to  open  the  gates  of  brass,  to  break  in 
pieces  the  bars  of  iron,  to  subdue  the  nations  before  thee, 
1  charge  thee  to  rebuild  my  house  in  Jerusalem  ; "  and 
when  the  Master  of  the  World  believed  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  and,  with  the  assent  of  the  religious  powers  of 
his  realm,  sent  forth  that  decree,  on  which,  to  human 
eyes,  hung  all  the  future  the  Prophet  saw  in  vision. 

The  grand  modesty  of  his  silence  seems  to  me  rather 
to  prove,  than  to  disprove,  that  the  chief  actor  in  that 
surpassing  hour  was  Daniel.     But,  whether  so  or  not, 


126  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

that  decree  is  of  deepest  interest  to  our  inquiries.  As  the 
Persian  kings  were  Pontiffs,  the  proclamation  of  Cyrus, 
the  Persian,  ^'the  Lord  God  of  Heaven  hath  given  me 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  and  He  hath  charged  me 
to  build  for  Him  a  house  in  Jerusalem ; "  and  the  pre- 
vious proclamation  of  the  Median,  Darius,  "  unto  all 
people,  nations,  and  languages,  I  make  a  decree,  that, 
in  every  dominion  of  my  kingdom,  men  fear  and  tremble 
before  the  God  of  Daniel,  for  He  is  the  living  God," 
were  authoritative  recognitions  of  Jehovah,  as  the  same 
with  Ormazd,  the  God  of  the  Persians  ;  and,  as  Cyrus, 
no  doubt,  consulted  the  Chief  Magi  before  he  made  his 
decree,  at  least  this  great  historical  fact  inevitably  fol- 
lows, that  part  of  Hebrew  Scripture  was  interpreted 
to  them^  and,  by  them,  most  solemnly  acknowledged 
and  acted  upon  as  divine. 

Even  if  the  reverence  of  the  Magi  for  the  command 
of  Jehovah  concerning  his  Temple  in  Jerusalem  was  not 
owing  to  Daniel,  it  would  still  be  true  that  the  imagina- 
tion can  hardly  frame  a  course  of  events  that  would  have 
given  a  stranger,  greater  influence  with  the  Magi, 
than  that  recorded  of  him.  In  the  East,  royal  favor 
makes  dignitaries  with  a  swiftness  and  completeness  so 
impressive  to  Orientals,  that  they  conceive  it  hath  in  it 
a  divine  quality,  and  listen,  as  to  God,  when  commanded 
to  bow  down  before  the  slave,  or  the  stranger,  whom 
kings  delight  to  honor.  Familiar  with  the  sudden  ruin 
of  favorites,  the  honor  of  Daniel,  continuing  through 
changes  of  dynasties  and  a  succession  of  rulers,  must 
have  greatly  impressed  the  Magi,  and,  together  with  the 


DANIEL   AXD    THE    il^lGI.  127 

natural  and  supernatural  wisdom  to  which  it  was  due, 
must  have  oriven  him  a  o^rand  entrance  into  their  reii- 
giously  sensitive  minds.  His  previsio^n  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  Lord  was  so  much  in  harmony  with  the  great  hope 
of  their  religion,  of  the  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  Light, 
that  it  is  in  vain  to  look  to  anv  other  ancient  religion  for 
a  similar  point  of  contact  between  it  and  the  sublime 
visions  of  Hebrew  Prophecy;  and  even  more  so,  for 
such  another,  as  the  Persian  expectation  of  a  Redeemer 
to  come,  in  the  likeness  of  man. 

But  the  explanations  and  confirmations  of  the  Pil- 
grimage of  the  "Wise  Men  are  not  thus  exhausted,  for 
from  the  Scriptures  it  seems  to  appear,  how  through 
the  working  together  of  Hebrew  truths,  and  of  their 
own  ideas,  the  ^lagi  connected  the  birth  of  a  predicted 
Redeemer,  and  an  appearing  Star.  The  Evangelist 
records  a  part  only  of  the  fiicts,  but  in  the  Bible  voice 
answers  unto  voice. 

Daniel,  one  of  the  children,  '*  understanding  science, 
having  ability  to  stand  in  the  King's  palace,  and  to 
whom  misht  be  taui^ht  the  learninor  and  the  tonizue  of 
the  Chaldeans,"  was  familiar  with  the  religions  of  those 
nations  among  whom  his  lot  was  cast.  His  training 
makes  this  certain  ;  and  without  this  knowledge,  he 
would  not  have  been  called  to  the  offices  he  held.  Such, 
too,  the  spirit  of  the  man,  and  such  the  circumstances 
in  which  he  was  placed,  that  he  must  have  felt  intense 
interest  in  prophecies  of  the  Messiah,  not  of  a  Hebrew 
origin ;  and  must  have  made  use  of  such  to  enkindle, 
among  the  Wise  of  the  East,  an    expectation    of   the 


128  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

Messiah.     With  what  is  known  of  his  history,  there  is 
needed  no  further  evidence  that  these  things  were  so. 

The  oracle  of  Balaam  was  such  a  prophecy  —  and  he 
must  have  made  this  use  of  it,  not  only  for  the  general 
reason  that  it  was  not  a  Hebrew  prophecy,  but  for  the 
particular  reason  that  Balaam  was  of  Mesopotamia. 
This  was  a  more  interesting  fact  to  Chaldeans  than  to 
Magians ;  but  in  their  relations  with  Daniel,  the  learned 
in  Babylon  were  one  class ;  and  the  fame  of  Balaam 
was  great  enough  to  transcend  national  lines.  If  his 
fame  did  not,  the  remoteness  of  his  age  would ;  for  he 
lived  in  a  time,  that,  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  was  hoary 
antiquity.  His  voice  then  reached  the  Magi  from  the 
height  of  a  thousand  years.  Of  personages  like  Ba- 
laam, the  tradition  lives  on  ;  age  repeats  it  to  listening 
youth,  by  them  to  be  repeated  in  their  age,  and  even 
the  far-off  echo  retains  something  of  the  power  of  the 
voice.  In  Chaldea,  there  may  have  been  oracles  of  Ba- 
laam preserved  in  writing  ;  but  whether  or  not  preserved 
in  writing,  or  by  tradition,  Daniel  could  point  to  one 
oracle  of  his  in  the  books  of  the  Hebrews.  There  it  was 
written,  "  Balaam,  the  son  of  Beor,  ...  he  hath  said, 
which  heard  the  words  of  God  and  knew  the  knowledoe 
of  the  Most  High,  which  saw  the  vision  of  the  Almighty, 
falling  into  a  trance,  but  having  his  eyes  open,  I  shall 
see  Him,  but  not  now;  I  shall  behold  Him,  but  not 
nigh.  There  shall  come  a  Star  out  of  Jacob,  and 
a    Sceptre   shall    rise    out   of    Israel."  ^      The    words, 

^  Numbers  xxiv.  15,  IG,  17. 


DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI.  129 

**  there  shall  come  a  Star  out  of  Jacob,"  must  have 
struck  the  imagination  of  astrologers,  —  and  such  the 
Magi  were.  With  their  notions,  they  could  not  but 
think  this  saying  meant  that,  in  some  future  age,  a  Star 
would  usher  in  the  dominion  of  some  Great  Personage 
in  Judea.  This  was,  naturally,  inevitably  their  inter- 
pretation of  the  oracle.  And  the  wonderful  purpose 
of  their  own  Pontiff  king,  moved  to  it  by  the  command 
of  God  to  restore  the  enslaved  and  exiled  children  of 
Israel  to  their  own  country,  must  have  intensified  their 
wonder  at  this  very  ancient  prophecy  of  one  not  of  the 
Hebrew  race.  This  strange  thing  which  they  them- 
selves had  witnessed,  and  in  which  they  themselves  had 
borne  a  part,  must  have  seemed  to  them  in  mysterious 
harmony  with  the  word  of  the  ancient  seer,  in  presag- 
in^:  somethins:  marvellous  in  the  future  of  Israel. 

Data,  from  which  the  time  of  the  Messiah  might  be 
computed,  were  revealed  to  Daniel.  There  is  reason  to 
think  the  Magi  knew  this,  for  Plebrew  prophecy  was 
no  secret  thing.  The  revelations  of  the  prophets  were 
published  to  their  own  countrymen,  and  the  books  that 
contained  them  were  not  hidden  from  strangers.  It  is 
evidence  of  this  that,  before  the  Christian  era,  the  Jews 
translated  them  all  into  the  Greek,  then  the  common 
language  of  a  great  part  of  the  world.  If  the  revela- 
tion as  to  the  time  of  the  Messiah  was  in  any  way 
made  known  to  the  Magi  of  the  reign  of  Cyrus, 
whether  by  Daniel  himself  or  not,  their  high  venera- 
tion for  the  prophet,  and  the  religious  interest  of  the 
oracle,  could  not  but  have  fixed  their  attention  earnestly 
9 


130  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

upon  it.  Even  the  fact  that  it  was  mystical  in  its  lan- 
guage, and  difficult  of  interpretation,  appealed  to  the 
professional  honor  of  men  trained  to  look  into  the  mean- 
ing of  dark  sayings,  and  versed  in  the  harmonies  of 
numbers  ;  and  they  must  have  tried  to  search  out  its  true 
import  and  determine  the  time.  For  the  aspiration  to 
pierce  into  the  secrets  of  the  future,  then  unchilled  by 
disappointments  and  unsatiated,  as  now,  by  the  fulness 
of  knowledge  revealed,  was  so  eager  and  intense  as  to 
absorb  into  itself  a  large  part  of  the  activity  of  the 
human  intellect,  hardly  less  active  then,  than  now. 
Now,  a  great  earnestnesss  to  search  into  the  secret 
things  of  the  worlds  in  space,  has  taken  the  place  of 
the  old  lon^ino:  to  search  into  the  secret  thino[s  of  the 
worlds  in  time,  and  the  present  intensity  of  the  one 
measures  the  ancient  intensity  of  the  otlier. 

The  date  the  Magi  fixed  upon  as  the  end  of  the  seven 
and  three  score  and  two  weeks  of  the  oracle  may  have 
closely  approximated  to  the  truth.  This  date,  and  the 
ancient  prediction  of  a  Star  at  the  birth  of  the  Great 
Personage  whose  time  was  thus  foretold, — a  predic- 
tion in  harmony  with  their  modes  of  thought  as  astrolo- 
gers, and,  in  itself,  simple  and  striking, — these  were 
not  likely  to  be  forgotten  in  the  unbroken  succession  of 
these  conservators  of  traditions. 

But  in  reflecting  upon  the  probability  of  some  rela- 
tion between  the  revelation  of  the  Lord  to  Daniel  and 
the  pilgrimage  of  Magi  to  Jerusalem,  seeking  for  Him, 
three  more  or  less  difficult  questions  arise.  The  seven, 
and  the  three  score  and  two  weeks  measure   not   to  the 


DANIEL    AND    THE    MAGI.  131 

year  of  the  Messiah's  birth,  but  to  the  fulness  of  his 
life :  —  How  then  could  the  Magi  have  identified  the 
Star  of  His  Birth?  The  answer  to  this  question  in- 
volves the  consideration  of  certain  astronomical  facts, 
and  must  be  deferred  to  a  subsequent  chapter. 

The  second  question  is.  How  could  revelations  of 
Daniel  to  the  Magi  have  been  remembered  five  hundred 
years  and  more?  This  would  be  a  great  difficulty  if 
they  were  entrusted  to  tradition.  Even  then  their 
memory  might  have  thus  lasted,  and  could,  at  any  time, 
have  been  reinvigorated  from  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Hebrews,  who,  from  the  time  of  Cyrus  onwards,  dwelt 
in  considerable  numbers  in  the  capitals  of  the  Persians, 
or  of  the  Parthians.  But  some  revelations  to  Daniel 
may  have  been  preserved  by  the  Magi  in  writing,  as  all 
of  them  were  by  the  Jews  through  this  very  period. 
For  the  Magi  had  a  literature  ;  and  this  was  growing 
for  some  centuries  before  the  time  of  Daniel,  and,  on- 
wards, to  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Alexander  (B.  C. 
331)  ;  and,  after  thousands  of  years,  some  parts  of  this 
are  still  preserved  by  yet  existing  Magi,  that  is  by  the 
priests  of  the  Parsees,  who  are  lineal  and  spiritual  suc- 
cessors of  the  Magi  of  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  inheriting 
their  blood,  observing  the  same  religious  rites,  revering 
the  same  books,  and  honoring  Zoroaster, 

About  the  year  B.  C.  464,  Theniistocles,  flying  from 
Greece,  found,  for  a  time,  honor  with  the  Great  King. 
Had  the  royal  archives  of  Media  and  Persia  survived, 
po  doubt  there  would  be  found  in  them  some  note  of 
this,  and  some  memoranda  as  to  the   policy  he  advised 


132  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

towards  the  Greeks.  At  the  earnest  persuasion  of  the 
king  himself,  the  honor  of  an  initiation  into  the  Order 
of  the  Magi  was  conferred  on  this  ilhistrious  forei2;ner. 
Had  this  unspiritual  man  been  a  diviner  and  seer,  might 
not  oracles  of  his  have  been  remembered  by  the  Magi  ? 
and  were  their  entire  literature  now  extant,  might  they 
not  reasonably  be  looked  for  there?  Save  that  he 
lived  a  century  earlier,  this  would  be  more  probable  iu 
the  case  of  Daniel.  His  supernatural  wisdom,  his 
official  position  as  chief  of  the  wise  men  of  Babylon, 
his  eminence  above  all  the  learned  orders  of  the  Per- 
sian Empire,  make  it  almost  certain  that  there  was 
some  record  of  him  in  the  books  of  the  Ma^i. 

In  the  period  from  the  conquest  of  Alexander,  to  the 
reestablishment  of  the  Persian  Kingdom  (A.D.  226), 
much  the  largest  part  of  this  JMagian  literature  perished  ; 
but  what  part  of  it  was  in  existence  at  the  Christian  era, 
or  what  that  part  contained,  is  unknown  ;  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that,  in  it,  there  may  then  have  been  that  reve- 
lation to  Daniel,  which  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  and  ever 
will  be,  of  world-wide  interest. 

The  third  question  is  this  :  As  the  Persians  believed 
that  Sosiosh,  whose  coming  was  to  bring  about  the 
renovation  of  all  things,  would  be  born  of  the  family 
of  Zoroaster,  could  they  have  received,  as  true,  a  revela- 
tion that  this  hio^h  honor  would  be  oiven  to  a  land  and 
race  that  was  once  subject  to  them,  and  which,  in  the 
various  ways  known  to  national  egotism  and  pride,  they 
thought  inferior  to  their  own  ?  As  the  difficulty  here 
need  not  be  extended   to  the  whole  of  the  Magi,  as  it 


DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI.  133 

reaches  only  to  those  who  went  to  Jerusalem,  it  might 
suffice  to  say,  that,  in  the  minds  of  a  few,  this  might  be 
accounted  for  by  the  authority  of  the  prophet  Daniel, 
and  by  the  fact  that,  in  other  nations,  a  few  grand  souls 
have  risen  above  the  prejudices  of  their  race  and  time ; 
but  some  direct  light  may  be  thrown  upon  tliis  diffi- 
culty. If  the  Magian  pilgrims  to  Jerusalem  sought 
for  the  Sosiosh,  who,  according  to  the  Persian  belief, 
was  to  put  an  end  to  death,  to  raise  the  dead,  and  to 
make  all  things  new,  then  it  must  be  supposed  that  a 
very  great  victory  was  gained  by  them  over  their  na- 
tional feelinofs.  This  would  not  be  incredible  to  those 
w^ho  believe  that  God  is  able  to  guide  to  all  truth,  and 
to  exalt  to  all  nobility  ;  but  in  showing  the  possibility 
of  a  Hebrew  historical  statement  regarded  strictly  as 
such,  the  line  of  thought  must  be  limited  to  purely  his- 
torical considerations. 

The  IMagian  belief  in  the  Sosiosh,  in  its  earliest 
form,  seems  to  have  known  of  one,  but  in  a  later  form, 
it  held  that  three  Prophets  were  to  arise,  of  whom  the 
Greatest  would  be  the  Last.  Now,  in  the  revelation 
to  Daniel,  the  coming  foretold  seems  not  to  be  of  that 
absolutely  final  effect,  attributed,  by  the  Persians,  to  the 
last  of  the  mighty  Three.  It  is  not  so  incredible,  then, 
as  irrespective  of  this  it  might  be,  that  certain  of  the 
Magi  believed  that  one  of  these  mioht  be  born  in  the 
Hebrew  land,  and  of  the  Hebrew  race  ;  or,  their  belief 
may  have  been  wholly  distinct  from  their  own  Median 
traditions,  save  as  they  prepared  them  to  accredit  the 
oracle    of    the    prophet,    as    being    in    harmony   with 


134  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

their  main  features.  And  here  the  fact  should  be  re- 
called, that  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  and  of  the  Magi 
were  not  alien  religions ;  that  their  Pontiff  kings  had 
solemnly  acknowledged  that  the  God -of  the  Hebrews 
was  the  same  God  of  heaven  whom  the  Persians  v/or- 
shipped  ;  and  that  the  Temple  in  Jerusalem  was,  in  some 
true  sense,  a  Persian  Temple,  as  its  rebuilding  was 
ordered  by  edicts  of  Persian  kings.  In  all  the  earth, 
the  Persians  and  the  Hebrews  stood  alone  in  their  ad- 
herence to  the  primeval  revelation  of  the  unity  of  God, 
and  out  of  this,  in  part,  there  had  grown,  for  a  time, 
close  relations  between  them.  Beside  this,  the  Persian 
was,  by  nature,  generously  appreciative.  His  zeal  for 
the  faith  made  him  intolerant  of  the  idolatry  of  other 
nations,  but  he  was  not  narrows-minded  as  the  Jews  — 
quite  erroneously  —  are  often  said  to  have  been.  Thus, 
a  variety  of  considerations  tend  to  make  it  credible  that, 
the  minds  of  some  of  the  Magi  might  have  been  open 
to  accredit  the  fact  revealed  to  Daniel,  that  a  great 
Deliverer  would  be  born  of  a  race,  which,  though  alien 
from  their  own  in  blood,  was  kindred  in  worship. 

Even  had  Daniel  not  lived,  the  Magian  pilgrimage  to 
Jerusalem  might  be  explained  by  the  public,  and  long- 
cherished  Jewish  expectation  of  a  Messiah,  a  knowl- 
edge of  which  was  widely  spread  abroad.  Such  an 
expectation  made  known  to  some  of  the  Magi  of  the 
Far  East,  and  received  by  them  as  accounting  for  a 
new  phenomenon  in  the  heavens,  might,  with  a  few 
Asiatics  who  w^ere  enthusiasts,  astrologers,  and  members 
of  an  order  wdiose  characteristic  it  was  ever  to  be  watch- 


DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI.  135 

ins:  for  the  sis^ns  and  wonders  of  the  intervention  of 
Ormazd  in  the  affairs  of  men,  might,  in  that  age  have 
led  to  such  a  pilgrimage.  But  the  Magian  pilgrimage 
is  not  so  bare  as  this  of  known  antecedent  facts  that 
give  to  it  credibility.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  take  what 
is  recorded  of  Daniel  and  place  it  side  by  side  with  the 
Magian  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  and  not  to  believe 
they  are  related  as  cause  and  effect.  The  explanation 
of  that  pilgrimage,  thus  suggested,  —  so  far  as  it  goes, 
—  is  so  natural  and  so  perfect,  that  only  the  fanati- 
cism of  unbelief  will  refuse  to  admit  its  probability  ; 
and  to  establish  it,  requires  only  a  very  little  direct 
evidence. 

I  find  this  in  the  inquiry  which  the  Magi  made  in 
Jerusalem.  The  form  of  this  is  remarkable.  They 
inquire  for  the  King  of  the  Jews.  This  sounds  both 
strange  and  dangerous.  It  was  strange,  for  Herod  had 
been  king  for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  all  his  chil- 
dren were  grown  up  ;  and  all  Jerusalem  felt  it  was 
dangerous,  as  the  Jews  had  perverted  their  belief  in 
a  Messiah  from  a  spiritual  to  a  political  Redeemer. 
But  certainly  they  were  not  understood  to  inquire  for 
a  temporal  prince  by  Herod,  who,  meaning  to  delude 
them,  promised  when  they  found  Him  they  sought,  he 
himself  would  worship  Him  ;  and,  no  doubt,  the  Magi 
were  understood  by  all  to  inquire  for  a  spiritual  Lord. 
No  doubt  they  explained  that  this  was  their  meaning ; 
for  the  words  ascribed  to  them  are  only  a  part  of  what 
they  said,  though  preserving  the  main  features  in  their 
inquiry,  and  its  very  remarkable  form. 


136  DANIEL   AND   THE   MAGI. 

From  whence  could  have  come  the  very  peculiar 
form  of  their  inquiry  ?  The  words  used  in  the  revela- 
tion to  Daniel  explain  what  is  else  inexplicable.  That 
revelation  foretold  —  "a  Messiah,  a  Prince"  —  as  the 
words  are  rendered  in  the  English  version.  The  first 
-vvord — transferred,  unchanged  from  the  Hebrew  into 
the  English  —  means  "  the  anointed."  The  second 
means  a  leader,  a  ruler,  and,  as  leadership  and  rule  per- 
tain to  those  of  royal  blood,  its  meaning  tends  towards 
the  idea  of  a  King.  Even  if  the  word  be  taken  in  the 
sense  of  a  leader  merely,  it  is  associated  with  the  word 
anointed,  and  anointing  was  part  of  the  ceremony  in 
coronation,  and  was  not  even  for  princes,  but  for  kings, 
only.  On  putting  the  terms  together  —  an  anointed 
chief — then,  the  idea  of  a  King  comes  out  unmistaka- 
ble and  clear.  Translations  of  the  Bible  into  other 
tongues  keep  near  as  may  be  to  the  literal  sense,  but  in 
a  free  translation,  seeking  only  to  express  the  thought, 
the  natural  rendering  here  would  be,  a  King ;  and  it  is 
most  likely  a  Hebrew  would  have  used  this  term  in 
translating  these  words  to  a  foreigner,  though  from 
motives  of  prudence,  the  Jews  under  Herod  preferred  to 
use  among  themselves  the  term  Messiah,  in  which  the 
idea  of  kingship  was  less  dangerously  prominent ;  and 
certainly  the  word  King  would  be  the  one  that  would 
most  naturally  occur  to  foreigners,  as  the  best  interpre- 
tation of  the  fulness  of  the  thought  of  the  prophet. 
It  is  clear,  then,  why  the  Magi  made  their  inquiry  in 
the  form  they  did,  "Where  is  he  that  is  born  the  King 
of  the  Jews."     They  thought  the  term  King,  as  used 


DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI.  137 

by  them,  would  be  understood  in  a  spiritual  sense ; 
they  thought  there  was  a  peculiar  propriety  in  the  form 
of  their  inquiry,  because  it  showed  the  motive  to  their 
pilgrimage  was  a  prophecy  of  Daniel,  who,  though  a 
Hebrew,  was  a  Magian,  held  in  honor  by  their  re- 
nowned sovereigns  of  old,  and  whose  bones  were  in  the 
land  of  the  Medes.  This  was  what  the  form  of  their 
inquiry  meant.  This  the  Evangelist  meant  to  indicate 
by  preserving  that  form.  And  this  would  ever  have 
been  clear  to  the  readers  of  the  English  version  had  it 
rendered  the  words  in  the  prophecy  of  Daniel,  as  the 
ancient  Syriac  version  did  render  them,  "  the  anointed 

one,    THE    KING." 

As  the  fact  of  the  continuing  presence  of  Hebrews 
in  the  land  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  is  more  or  less 
important  in  the  explanation  of  the  Magian  pilgrimage, 
I  repeat  that,  from  the  time  of  Cyrus  to  the  conquest 
of  Alexander,  Judea  was  a  part  of  the  Persian  Em- 
pire ;  that,  in  the  Persian,  and  subsequently  in  the 
Parthian  capitals,  there  were  multitudes  of  Jews  ;  and 
that  the  Star  was  first  seen  by  the  Magi  in  Baby- 
lonia, one  of  the  great  settlements  of  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion.  A  little  later  than  the  Christian  era,  it 
was  the  seat  of  one  of  the  schools  of  Jewish  learning, 
and  in  the  "  days  of  Herod  the  King,"  Hillel,  whom  for 
his  wisdom  and  piety,  the  Rabbins  venerate  next  to 
Ezra,  came  up  from  thence  to  Jerusalem.  From  its 
learning,  that  country  had  strong  attractions  for  the 
Magi,  to  whom  all  religious  learning  was  attractive. 
When   they   saw   the    Star,    they   were   sojourning,   or 


138  DANIEL  AND  THE  MAGI. 

perhaps  dwelling  in  that  country.  Either  would  be 
natural  enough,  for  it  was  adjacent  to  Persia.  Like 
Persia  it  was  then  under  the  Parthian  rule.  There  w^as 
Ctesiphon  one  of  the  Parthian  capitals ;  and,  from 
their  reception  by  King  Herod,  it  is  plain  they  were 
no  strangers  to  the  palaces  of  kings. 

This  fact  that  the  Star  was  seen  by  them,  not  in 
Persia,  but  in  Babylonia,  not  in  the  Far  East  but  in 
the  East,  may  go  some  ways  tow^ards  explaining  their 
Pilgrimage,  as  shown  in  the  next  chapter. 


HOPE    OF   THE   MESSIAH.  139 


CHAPTER    VII. 

HOPE    OF   THE    MESSIAH    IN    SYRIA   AND   THE    EAST. 

When  the  Magi  from  distant  Bactria,  or  Parthia, 
or  Persia  Proper,  or  any  other  district  of  the  Far  East, 
came  into  the  East,  they  had  accomplished  one  geo- 
graphical stage  of  their  long  journey  to  Jerusalem, 
though  they  knew  it  not ;  and  they  had  accomplished 
one  historical  stage  of  it  also,  for  they  had  come  fully 
within  the  circle  of  a  wide-spread  expectation,  at  that 
very  time,  of  the  Birth  of  some  great  personage  in  Judea. 

This  expectation  is  witnessed  to  by  one  Hebrew  and 
by  two  Latin  writers,  —  all  in  whose  writings  we  should 
expect  to  find  it,  —  though  their  testimony  is  by  no 
means  all  the  evidence  of  the  fact.  Josephus,  writing 
of  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  says,  "What  cliiefly  incited 
the  Jews  to  the  war,  was  an  ambiguous  prophecy,  found 
in  their  sacred  writings,  that  about  that  time,  one  from 
their  country  should  obtain  the  Empire  of  the  World. 
.  .  .  This  oracle  in  reality  denoted  the  elevation  of 
Vespasian,  he  having  been  proclaimed  Emperor  in 
Judea." ^  Tacitus,  having  chronicled  the  signs  and 
wonders  foretokening  the  foil  of  the  city,  says,  "  Quae 

1  Bel.  Jud.  vi.  5,  4. 


140  HOPE    OF   THE   MESSIAH 

pauci  in  metum  trahebant ;  pluribus  persuasio  inerat,  an- 
tiqiiis  sacerdotum  Uteris  contineri,  eo  ipso  tempore  fore 
ut  valesceret  Orieiis  profectique  Judaja  rerum  potirentur  ; 
qua;  ambages  Yespasianum  ac  Titum  pra^dixerat.  Sed 
vulgus,  more  humanoe  cupidinis,  sibi  tantam  fatoruna 
magnitudinem  interpretati,  ne  adversis  quidem  ad  verum 
mutabantur  :  "  ^  —  Because  of  these  the  few  feared,  but 
the  many  believed  that  it  was  written  in  the  ancient 
books  of  the  priests,  that  at  that  very  time  the  Orient 
—  i.  e.  Syria  —  should  prevail ;  and  that  those  going 
forth  out  of  Judea  should  obtain  the  Empire  of  the 
World.  These  ambiguous  oracles  predicted  Vespasian 
and  Titus.  But  the  peoj^le,  as  is  the  way  with  men  led 
by  their  wishes,  interpreted  in  their  own  behalf  this 
destined  greatness,  and  were  not  converted  to  the  truth 
even  by  calamities. 

Suetonius  says,  "  Percrebuerat  Oriente  toto  vetus 
et  constans  opinio,  esse  in  fjitis,  ut  eo  tempore  Judaea 
profecti  rerum  potirentur.  Id  de  Imperatore  Romano, 
quantum  eventu  postea  paruit,  predictum  Judtei  ad  se  tra- 
hentes  rebellarunt : "  ^ — An  ancient  and  abidinnf  belief 
greatly  prevailed  throughout  all  the  Orient,  that  fate  had 
decreed,  that  at  that  very  time  those  going  forth  out  of 
Judea  should  obtain  the  empire  of  the  world.  This  pre- 
diction of  the  Roman  Emperor,  as  afterwards  appeared 
by  the  event,  the  Jews,  taking  to  themselves,  rebelled. 

The  concurrence  of  an  ancient,  wide-spread  presenti- 
ment springing  out  of  the  oracles  of  the  Jews,  with  the 

^  Tac,  Hist.,  V.  13.  ^  Suet.,  Vita  Vespas.,  iv. 


IN   SYKIA   AND   THE   EAST.  141 

appearing  of  one  who  answered  to  it,  yet  in  a  way- 
bey  ond  all  the  imaginings  of  men,  is  a  fact  equally 
hard  for  infidels  to  explain  or  to  deny.  In  this  dilemma, 
they  try  to  weaken  the  evidence  for  a  fact  whose  im- 
portance they  cannot  hide,  and  claim  that  the  testimony 
of  the  two  Romans  must  be  ruled  out  because  they 
copied  Josephus.  Some  Christian  critics,  conceding  this 
claim,  countenance  the  assumption  concealed  in  it,  that 
the  fact  rests  on  the  word  of  Josephus  only.  This 
assumption  is  an  error,  and  the  evidence  of  this  ex- 
pectation is  so  vital  to  our  argument,  and  in  many  ways 
is  so  important,  that  it  should  here  be  stated. 

Without  the  testimony  of  any  historian,  the  prophe- 
cies, beginning  with  Genesis,  and  especially  those  in  the 
book  of  Daniel,  are  such  that  there  must  have  been  in 
Palestine,  early  in  the  first  century,  a  lively  hope  of  the 
appearing  of  some  great  personage.  That  such  an  ex- 
pectation did,  then  and  there,  prevail,  if  not  stated 
expressly  in  the  Gospels,  is  inwrought  with  the  whole 
course  of  the  events  they  describe.  The  wars  of  the 
Jews  with  the  Romans  at  the  time  of  the  fall  of  Jerusa- 
lem, and  under  Hadrian,  accord  in  general  features  and 
in  particular  facts  with  such  an  expectation.  And  there 
is  the  testimony  of  Josephus.  Such  is  the  general 
evidence  of  this  expectation  apart  from  the  two  Roman 
writers.  Josephus  wrote  his  history,  in  part,  to  screen 
his  unhappy  countrymen  from  the  jealousy  of  the  Ro- 
mans ;  and,  Hebrew  at  heart,  though  an  apostate,  he 
would  not  have  named  it  at  all,  had  it  not  been  too  well 
known  for  him  to  pass  it  over.     The  fact  was  of  such  a 


142  HOPE    OF   THE    MESSIAH 

kind  that  it  must  have  been  well  known  to  the  Romans. 
The  prophecies  of  the  Jews  had  long  been  accessible  to 
them  in  a  Greek  translation,  and  were,  probably,  better 
known  to  Roman  statesmen  and  soldiers  than  to  Roman 
scholars.  For  Palestine  had  long  been  held  by  Roman 
garrisons ;  and  the  sagacious  officers  of  Rome,  with 
whom  the  art  of  governing  subject  races  was  almost  in- 
stinctive, and  who  were  trained  in  the  school  of  experi- 
ence to  know  the  power  of  religious  ideas  and  predictions 
in  war,  would  have  been  quick  to  mark  such  a  belief, 
and  to  foresee  all  that  might,  and  that  did,  result  from 
it.  The  bloody  siege  of  Jerusalem,  connected  as  it  was 
with  the  assumption  of  the  purple  by  the  Flavian  dy- 
nasty, fastened  on  itself  the  steady  gaze  of  Rome.  The 
fall  of  Jerusalem  was  to  the  Romans  a  signal,  perchance 
even  a  solemn  event ;  and  all  the  peculiar  elements  of 
its  destiny  must  have  been  carefully  noted  by  those 
watchful  observers  of  political  events. 

There  is,  then,  no  antecedent  likelihood  in  the  notion, 
that  both  Tacitus  and  Suetonius  knew  of  the  expectation 
of  the  Jews  only  from  Josephus.  They  had  other  au- 
thority than  his  for  the  Jewish  w^ar ;  and  this  fact  was 
as  likely  as  any,  and  more  likely  than  most,  to  have 
come  to  them  from  other  sources.  They  had  read  Jo- 
sephus, no  doubt ;  it  is  quite  certain  that  Tacitus  had  ; 
and  yet  it  is  clear  that  their  statements  are  independent 
of  his.  They  enlarge  both  the  prophecy  and  the  expec- 
tation. Tacitus  says  the  oracle  was  that  Syria  should 
wax  mighty ;  Suetonius  makes  all  Syria  expectant ; 
while  Josephus   limits   everything  to  Judea,  both  pro- 


IN    SYRIA   AND   THE    EAST.  143 

phecy  and  expectation.  All  three  describe  it  as  com- 
mon, but  the  Latins  in  a  wider  field ;  and  their  terms, 
describing  how  generally  it  was  talked  about,  are 
stronger  than  the  Jew  cared  to  use. 

As  to  the  breadth  of  this  expectation,  the  Latin 
writers  give  the  true  impression.  The  Orientals  are 
quick  to  receive  such  impressions  to  a  degree  a  Euro- 
pean, in  this  age,  can  hardly  comprehend.  It  could  not 
have  been  the  expectation  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine,  and 
not  of  the  Jews  in  all  Syria.  Through  Syrian  Jews 
it  must  have  pervaded  the  whole  Syrian  mind ;  and  the 
Syrian  Jews  being  in  constant  intercourse  with  their 
kinsmen  "  beyond  the  Euphrates,"  it  must  have  pervaded 
the  Hebrew  mind  in  that  region  also. 

Some  writers,  hesitating  between  their  dislike  to  ad- 
mit the  fact  and  a  sense  of  what  is  due  to  their  critical 
honor,  admit  the  Latin  testimony ;  but  try  to  weaken 
its  force,  by  saying  that  such  an  expectation,  at  the 
time  of  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  does  not  prove  its  exist- 
ence at  the  Nativity,  seventy  years  before.  The  gospels 
prove  its  existence  then  ;  but,  limiting  the  argument  to 
the  Latin  evidence,  it  is  enough  to  say,  that  a  belief, 
spread  throughout  all  Syria,  presupposes  a  growth  and 
development ;  and  the  words  of  Suetonius  are,  "  in  Syria 
it  was  an  ancient,  abiding  belief." 

It  was  the  expectation  of  the  few,  before  it  was  of 
the  many.  It  was  known  to  the  more  spiritual  in  Israel 
—  the  wisest  and  quickest  to  discern  the  truth  revealed 
as  to  the  time  of  the  Lord's  appearing,  as  well  as  its 
mysterious  spiritual  import ;   and  then  in  grosser  forms 


144  HOPE    OF   THE   MESSIAH. 

it  became,  at  length,  the  common  expectation  of  the 
Jews. 

Every  stage  of  this  belief  was  reflected  in  the  great 
Jewish  settlement  "  beyond  the  Euphrates."  When  the 
priests  determined  in  Jerusalem  the  instant  of  the  new 
moon,  whose  rising  fixed  the  time  of  the  sacred  feasts, 
beacons  blazed  from  height  to  height  along  the  Syrian 
highlands,  north  and  eastward,  until  they  gave  the  sig- 
nal to  the  expectant  millions  of  the  Dispersion  beyond 
the  Great  River ;  and,  with  almost  equal  celerity,  every 
thought  and  feeling  of  the  Holy  City  was  transmitted  to 
the  Hebrews  beyond  the  Euphrates. 

At  the  time  of  the  Incarnation  of  our  Lord,  an  elect 
few  in  Jerusalem  were  awaiting  his  coming ;  and  there 
must  have  been  a  like  expectation  among  some  of  their 
spiritual  brethren  beyond  the  Euphrates.  When  the 
Magi  came  from  the  Far  East  into  the  East,  they  came 
fully  within  the  circle  of  this  expectance,  whether  then 
as  general  as  afterwards  or  not.  Being  men  of  spirit- 
ual desires,  and  guided  by  divine  grace,  the  thought  is 
irresistible,  that  their  ancient  belief  there  received  new 
life ;  that,  in  the  very  land  of  the  Seer,  they  heard  from 
Hebrews,  as  their  fathers  from  a  Hebrew,  of  the  Star  — 
by  them  faithfully  remembered  —  of  the  King  of  the 
Jews ;  and  not,  as  their  fathers  heard,  of  a  Star  which 
was  to  gild  the  heavens  of  a  future  age,  but  as  then 
about  to  shine.  If,  at  such  at  a  time,  these  astron- 
omers beheld  what  science  tells  us  has  sometimes  been, 
the  outshining  of  a  new  Star,  we  have,  at  once,  the 
immediate  moving  cause  of  their  Pilgrimage. 


Kepler's  discovery.  145 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
Kepler's  discovery. 

Christianity  is  often  said  to  be  a  system  of  truths ; 
but  even  its  most  mysterious  truths  are  facts.  Chris- 
tianity, then,  is  a  system  of  facts;  and  the  evidence  for 
it,  the  evidence  that  proves  facts.  The  vv^ eight  of  such 
evidence,  unlike  that  which  proves  mathematical  prob- 
lems, varies  in  different  minds,  and  it  varies  in  different 
ages.  Questions,  touching  the  validity  of  this  evidence, 
mithought  of  by  one  generation,  perplex  another;  and, 
v^^hile  inquiry  is  thus  constantly  stimulated  in  this  ever- 
varying  field,  God  ever  grants  fresh  confirmations  of  the 
reality  of  Christianity  to  meet  the  varying  phases  of 
the  human  mind. 

Kepler,  the  most  illustrious  of  astronomers,  observed 
a  new  star,  in  the  constellation  Serpentarius,  on  the 
night  of  the  17th  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1604.  His  master,  Tycho  Brahe,  had  observed  a  sim- 
ilar wonder  in  the  constellation  Cassiopeia,  on  the  night 
of  the  11th  of  October,  in  the  year  1572.  These  were 
not  luminous  bodies  within  our  atmosphere ;  were  not 
within,  or  near,  the  solar  system  ;  they  were  in  the  region 
of  the  fixed  stars.  Each  grew  more  and  more  brilliant, 
till  it  shone  like  a  planet.  Then  its  lustre  waned  until 
10 


146  Kepler's  discovery. 

it  ceased  to  be  visible, — the  one  in  March,  1574,  the 
other  in  February,  1606.  Their  light  was  white,  then 
yellow,  then  red,  then  dull,  and  so  went  out. 

The  star  of  1572  appeared  in  a  solitary  quarter  of  the 
heavens  ;  the  star  of  1604  took  its  stand  near  the  path 
of  the  sun,  as  if,  said  Kepler,  it  would  receive  the  salu- 
tations of  all  the  planets.^  It  shone  out  in  a  wonderful 
astrological  year.^  In  the  December  before,  all  astron- 
omers had  been  greatly  excited  by  a  conjunction  of  the 
planets  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  that  is,  their  drawing  so 
near  together  as  to  form  a  rare  fact  in  Astronomy,  a 
notable  sign  in  Astrology,  —  then  not  wholly  fallen  into 
disrepute.  In  March,  1604,  there  was  a  still  greater 
astrological  wonder.  These  two  planets  were  again  in 
conjunction,  together  wdth  the  planet  Mars.  To  the 
astronomers  of  that  time,  in  whose  thoughts  there  was 

^  Ilia  enim  extra  limites  Zodiaci  fulsit,  in  sidere  Cassio- 
peia, loco  cceli  infreqiienti,  nee  iillis  planetarum  accessiouibns 
nobilitato  ;  hsec  stationera  sibi  elegit  proxime  viam  rejj^iam 
solis,  lunte,  ceterorumque  planetarum  ;  sic  ut  ab  omuibiis 
planetis  saluteretur.  That  star  (of  1572)  shone  without  the 
bounds  of  the  Zodiac,  in  the  constellation  Cassiopeia,  an  un- 
frequented place  in  the  heavens,  not  ennobled  by  the  ap- 
proach of  any  of  the  planets  ;  this  star  (of  1604)  chose  for 
itself  a  place  near  the  royal  way  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
the  planets ;  as  if  it  would  receive  the  salutations  of  the 
planets.  —  Kepler,  De  Stella  Nova. 

^  The  year,  says  Sir  David  Brewster,  "  of  the  fiery  trigon, 
or  that  in  which  Saturn,  Jupiter,  and  Mars  are  in  the  fiery 
signs,  Aries,  Leo,  and  Sagittarius,  an  event  which  occurs 
only  every  eight  hundred  years.  —  Life  of  Kepler,  ch.  i. 
This  is  especially  noted  by  Kepler. 


Kepler's  discovery.  147 

much  of  astrological  speculation,  these  repeated  and 
accumulative  portents  seemed  a  forewarning  that  some- 
thing wonderful  was  about  to  come  to  pass  in  the  celes- 
tial or  terrestrial  spaces.  This  seemed  to  them  fulfilled, 
when,  in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  in  the  very  quarter  of 
the  heavens  where  two  of  these  planets  were  still  to- 
gether, this  strange  star,  as  Kepler  said,  —  vero  vulgo 
expectata  a  longo  tempore  cum  multa  solemnitate  et 
triumphali  pompa  ad  diem  constitutum  est  ingressa ; 
more  pr^potentis  alicujus  monarchise,  qui  metropolim 
regni  invisurus,  prsemissis  longe  antea  metatoribus, 
loca  comitatui  designat, — far,  and  wide,  and  long  ex- 
pected, with  much  of  preparation,  and  in  triumphal 
pomp,  came  on  the  day  ordained,  like  some  all-powerful 
monarch,  who,  being  about  to  look  upon  the  metropolis 
of  his  realm,  through  officers  sent  long  before,  designates 
to  his  court  their  places. 

The  analogical  genius  of  Kepler,  ever  watching  for 
celestial  resemblances,  through  whose  intimations  he 
might  divine  the  laws  established  in  the  heavens,  was 
es[)ecially  excited  by  the  coincidence  between  the  going 
before  of  these  planetary  signs,  and  the  apparition  of  the 
star;  and  he  conceived  that  the  Star,  seen  by  the  Magi, 
might  have  been  foretokened  and  marshalled  in  by  the 
same   train  of  phenomena    he  had    observed    in    these 

^  Iq  eum  prascise  coeli  locum,  ad  quern  omnium  a^trolo- 
gorura  oculi  congressum  Jovis  et  Martis  expectantes  diri- 
gebantur.  Just  in  that  part  of  the  sky  to  which  the  eyes  of 
all  astrologers  were  turned,  watching  the  conjunction  of  Ju- 
piter and  Mars.  —  Kepler,  De  Stella  Nova. 


148  Kepler's  discovery. 

three  planets.  He,  therefore,  traced  their  orbits  back- 
wards for  sixteen  hundred  years,  and  made  the  remark- 
able discovery,  that  the  planets  Jupiter  and  Saturn  were 
in  conjunction  in  the  Year  of  Rome  747,  and,  again, 
together  with  Mars,  in  748.  The  Time  of  our  Lord's 
Birth  can  hardly  have  been  earlier.  Its  true  date  may 
be  one,  and  probably  is  the  last,  of  these  years.^ 

Kepler  thought  his  discovery  determined  the  Year  of 
our  Lord.  It  comes  not  within  my  plan  to  consider  this 
opinion  ;  and,  lest  the  mention  of  this  strangely  interest- 
ing discovery  should  awaken  expectation  but  to  dis- 
appoint it,  I  will  here  say,  that  I  shall  not  use  it  as 
direct  or  positive  evidence  of  a  new  Star  at  the  Nativity  ; 
but  shall,  by  and  by,  try  to  show  that  it  makes  the  pil- 
grimage of  the  Magi  more  intelligible. 

For  two  hundred  years,  this  discovery,  made  by  the 
Prince  of  Astronomers,  was  little  heeded.  In  this  cen- 
tury, it  has  been  more  thought  of;  ^  but  there  seems,  as 
yet,  to  be  no  general  acquiescence  in  any  opinion  as  to 
its  bearing  on  the  first  verse  of  the  second  chapter  of 
St.  Matthew. 

One  theory,  however,  has  grown  out  of  it  that  should 
here  be  considered.     This  theory  looks   solely  to  the 

^  The  Christian  Era  is  coincident  with  754  ;  but  from  an 
eclipse  in  the  Year  of  Herod's  death,  it  is  known  that  he 
died  early  in  750. 

^  In  1827,  attention  to  it  was  reawakened  by  Bishop 
Munter  of  Copenhagen.  It  was  discussed  by  the  astrono- 
mer Schubert,  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  by  Dr.  Ideler,  of 
Berlin. 


Kepler's  discovery.  149 

• 

celestial  phenomena  of  the  year  of  Rome  747.  Al- 
ford's  admirably  clear  presentment  of  it  is  in  these  words  : 
"  In  the  year  of  Rome  747,  on  the  29th  of  May,  there 
was  a  conjunction  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  in  the  twentieth 
degree  of  the  constellation  Pisces,  close  to  the  first  point 
of  Aries,  which  was  the  part  of  the  heavens  noted,  in 
astrological  science,  as  that  in  which  the  signs  denoted 
the  greatest  and  noblest  events.  On  the  29th  of  Sep- 
tember, in  the  same  year,  another  conjunction  of  the 
same  planets  took  place,  in  the  sixteenth  degree  of 
Pisces ;  and,  on  the  5th  of  December,  a  third,  in  the 
fifteenth  degree  of  the  same  sign.  On  these  two  last  oc- 
casions, the  two  planets  were  so  near,  that  an  ordinary 
eye  would  regard  them  as  one  star  of  surpassing 
brightness.^  Supposing  the  Magi  to  have  seen  the 
first  of  these  conjunctions,  they  saw  it  actually /in  the 
East ;  '  for,  on  the  29th  of  May,  it  would  rise  three 
and  a  half  hours  before  sunrise.  If  they  then  took  their 
journey,  and  arrived  at  Jerusalem  in  a  little  more  than 
five  months  (the  journey  from  Babylon  took  Ezra  four 
months ;  see  Ezra  vii.  9)  ;  if  they  performed  the  route 
from  Jerusalem  to  Bethlehem  in  the  evening,  as  is 
implied, — the  December  conjunction,  in  the  fifteenth 
degree  of  Pisces,  would  be  before  them  in  the  direction 
of  Bethlehem.   .   .    .   Abarbanel,    the  Jew,   who   knew 

^  This  sentence,  from  the  first  edition  of  Alford's  Commen- 
tary on  the  New  Testament,  is  omitted  in  its  subsequent 
editions.  I  retain  it,  that  the  recent  inquiries  on  this  sub- 
ject may  be  more  fully  appreciated,  as  will  appear  as  we 
proceed. 


150  Kepler's  discovery. 

nothing  of  this  conjunction,  relates  it  as  a  tradition,  that 
no  conjunction  could  be  of  mightier  import  than  that 
of  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  which  planets  were  in  conjunc- 
tion, A.  M.  2365,  before  the  birth  of  Moses,  in  the 
sign  of  Pisces  ;  and  thence  remarks,  that  that  sign  was 
the  most  significant  one  for  the  Jews.  From  this  con- 
sideration he  concludes,  that  the  conjunction  of  these 
planets,  in  that  sign,  in  his  own  time  (A.  D.  1463),  be- 
tokened the  near  approach  of  the  Messiah.  And,  as  the 
Jews  did  not  invent  Astrology,  but  learnt  it  from  the 
Chaldeans,  this  idea,  that  a  conjunction  in  Pisces  be- 
tokened some  great  event  in  Judea,  must  have  prevailed 
amonof  the  Chaldean  astrolos^ers." 

Alford  thinks,  that,  the  word  Star  being  taken  in 
what  he  calls  "  its  wider  astrolos^ical  meaninof-,"  "  these 
circumstances  form  a  remarkable  coincidence  with  the 
history "  in  St.  Matthew ;  and  that  "  the  very  slight 
apparent  inconsistencies  with  the  above  explanation  are 
no  more  than  the  report  of  the  Magi  themselves,  and 
the  general  belief  of  the  age,  would  render  unavoidable." 

A  friend,^  who  read  this  book  in  manuscript,  sug- 
gested, "that  the  Magi,  taking  the  time-data  furnished 
by  the  prophet  Daniel,  ascertained  the  year  of  the  Na- 
tivity, and,  erecting  a  horoscope,  predetermined  the 
positions  of  the  planets  in  the  fated  year ;  that  the  plan- 
etary sign,  thus  foreknown  to  the  Wise  Men  of  the 
East,  received  among  them  the  name  of  the  Star  of  the 
King  of  the  Jews  ;  that  this  prediction,  at  once  religious 

^  The  late  Rev.  J.  McCarty,  Rector  of  Christ's  Church, 
Cincinnati. 


keplek's  discovery.  151 

and  scientific,  and  so  of  peculiar  interest  to  them,  was 
treasured  up  among  the  wisdom  kept  from  common  eyes, 
and,  where  it  was  verified  by  the  result,  the  pilgrimage 
is  explained."  Long  previous  to  the  time  of  Cyrus,  the 
Chaldeans  had  calculated  eclipses  ;  ^  but  whether  there 
could  have  been,  with  any  of  the  Magi,  the  science  re- 
quisite to  form  such  a  calculation  as  this,  is  very  doubt- 
ful. Still,  there  may  have  been,  in  the  unknown  of  the 
history  of  the  Magi,  the  fact  supposed ;  and  this  bril- 
liant suggestion  has,  at  least,  this  value  :  it  shows  that 
the  pilgrimage  of  the  Magi  might  at  once  be  explained, 
were  our  general  knowledge  of  all  that  is  related  to  it 
more  perfect.  It  makes  the  theory  advocated  by  Alford 
more  complete ;  but,  against  each,  there  are  these  de- 
cisive objections. 

In  the  second  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  the  word  Star 
cannot  mean  a  conjunction  of  planets.  Had  the  Magi, 
alone,  used  the  word,  it  is  conceivable  that  it  might  have 
this  meaning.  It  was  so  easy  for  them  to  have  used 
some  more  fitting  word  or  phrase,  and  the  jargon  of 
Astrology  so  clove  to  adepts  in  the  art,  and  was  so  com- 
mon, that  this  is  not  likely ;  still,  it  is  possible,  and,  in 
the  Magi,  it  was  admissible.  But  the  Evangelist  makes 
the  word  his  own ;  and  such  a  use  of  it,  though  proper 
for  them,  was  not  so  for  him. 

For  the  language  of  Scripture,  on  natural  subjects, 
has  absolute  truth.  The  common  idea,  that  it  is  less 
accurate  than  scientific  language,  comes  from  not  distin- 

^  See  note  on  p.  111. 


152 


guishiug  between  two  kinds  of  language.  The  language 
of  the  Scriptures  on  natural  subjects  is  the  language  of 
the  human  family.  Its  aim  is  to  describe  natural  phenom- 
ena, as  they  appear.  The  aim  of  scientific  language  is  to 
express  facts  lying  back  of  the  appearance,  and  to  ap- 
proximate, more  and  more,  to  the  ultimate  cause.  Tested 
by  their  aims,  the  common  language  is  perfect,  the  scien- 
tific imperfect.  The  one  is  perfect  at  once,  the  other 
never.  The  one  is  ever  the  same,  the  other  is  ever  chang- 
ing. Scripture  reveals  scientific  truths,  but  never  uses  sci- 
entific language  ;  if  so,  it  would  commit  itself  to  variable 
ideas.  While  stating  truths  in  nature,  to  which,  of  itself, 
science  could  never  attain,  it  still  adheres  to  that  com- 
mon language,  that  is  the  same  for  all,  and  changes  not.^ 
It  thus  pictures  the  genesis  of  the  earth  and  all  that  it 
inhabit.  Science  may  translate  what  it  thus  reveals  into 
scientific  language,  but  Scripture  describes  the  events  in 
the  beginning,  as  they  would  have  appeared  to  the  senses. 
Hence,  Scripture  would  not  set  forth  a  scientific  concep- 
tion in  words  accommodated  to  the  popular  mind.  This 
would  be  neither  scientific,  or  scriptural,  language.  The 
Magi  might  have  done  this,  not  the  Evangelist. 

Those  who  hold  that  the  Star  of  the  Magi  was  a  con- 
junction of  the  planets,  have  to  do  away  with  the  miracle 
of  its  guiding.  This  it  is  not  possible  to  do.  The  words 
are,  "Lo,  the  Star  went  before  them,  till  it  came  and 
stood  over  where  the  Younsr  Child  was."     The  wordins: 

^  See  "  The  Six  Days  of  Creation,"  by  Dr.  Taylor  Lewis, 
ch.  iii.,  on  Phenomenal  Lan^jua^je. 


KEPLEll's    DISCOVERY.  153 

of  a  legal  document  is  not  more  precise  ;  nor  can  any  one, 
by  taking  time  and  pains,  frame  any  form  of  words,  that 
would  better  express  the  Star's  guiding. 

The  bold,  ingenious  theory,  that  what  the  Magi  saw 
was  but  a  conjunction  of  certain  planets,  being,  then, 
contrary  to  Scripture,  might  here  be  dismissed ;  yet, 
the  whole  history  of  Kepler's  discovery,  and  of  the  dis- 
cussions that  have  arisen  out  of  it,  is  so  interesting  a 
chapter,  both  of  scientific  and  religious  inquiry,  that  I 
give  the  results  arrived  at,  in  a  recent  investigation,  by 
E.ev.  Charles  Pritchard,  Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society,^  made  with  the  intent  of  testing 
the  theory  just  considered.  This  confirms  the  fact,  that 
there  were  three  conjunctions  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn  in 
the  year  of  Rome  747.  "  Similar  results  also  have  been 
obtained  by  Encke,  and  the  December  conjunction  has 
been  verified  by  the  Astronomer  Royal. ^  No  celestial 
phenomena,  therefore,  of  ancient  date,  are  so  certainly 
ascertained,  as  the  conjunctions  in  question."  But  "the 
planets,  instead  of  seeming  like  one  star,  were,  at  no 
time,  nearer  than  the  very  considerable  distance  of 
double  the   moon's  apparent  diameter."^     He  pictures, 

1  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  Art.,  Star  of  the  Wise  Men. 

^  He  also  refers  to  Dr.  Ideler's  calculation,  as  "  worked 
out  with  great  care  and  no  very  great  inaccuracy."  This 
gave  the  same  year  and  the  followiag  days  :  May  20,  October 
27,  November  12.  His  are  May  29,  September  27,  Decem- 
ber 5.  In  his  later  editions,  Alford  gives  both,  but  seems 
to  accredit  the  latter. 

^  As  mentioned  before,  in  his  first  edition,  Alford,  misled, 
apparently,  by  some  exaggeration  or  error  of  Dr.  Ideler's, 


154  Kepler's  discovery. 

clearly,  the  celestial  phenomena  of  that  year,  — "a  date 
assuredly  not  very  distant  from  the  time  of  our  Sa- 
viour's birth ; "  and  then  tries  to  determine  "  how  far 
they  fulfil,  or  fail  to  fulfil,  the  conditions  required  by  the 
narrative  in  St.  Matthew." 

After  the  conjunction  in  the  month  of  May,  the 
planets  separated  slowly  "  until  the  end  of  July, 
when,  their  motions  becoming  retrograde,  they  again 
came  into  conjunction,  by  the  end  of  September.  At 
that  time,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jupiter  would  pre- 
sent to  astronomers  a  magnificent  spectacle.  It  was  then 
at  its  most  brilliant  apparition,  for  it  was  at  its  nearest 
approach  both  to  the  sun  and  to  the  earth.  Not  far 
from  it  would  be  seen  its  duller  and  much  less  conspicu- 
ous companion,  Saturn.  This  glorious  spectacle  con- 
tinued almost  unaltered  for  several  days,  when  the 
planets  again  slowly  separated,  then  came  to  a  halt ; 
when,  by  reassuming  a  direct  motion,  Jupiter  again 
approached  to  a  conjunction,  for  the  third  time,  with 
Saturn,  just  as  the  Magi  may  be  supposed  to  have  entered 
the  Holy  City.  And,  to  complete  the  fascination  of  the 
tale,  about  an  hour  and  a  half  after  sunset,  the  two 
planets  might  be  seen  from  Jerusalem,  hanging,  as  it 
were,  in  the  meridian,  and  suspended  over  Bethlehem  in 
the  distance.     These  celestial  phenomena,  thus  described, 

stated,  that  the  planets  seemed  one  star.  This  he  has  cor- 
rected ;  but,  adhering  to  his  theory,  says,  *'  Tlie  conjunction 
of  the  two  planets,  complete  or  incomplete,  would  be  that 
which  would  bear  astrological  significance  ;  not  their  looking 
like  one  star." 


Kepler's  discovery.  155 

are,  it  will  be  seen,  beyond  the  reach  of  question  ;  and, 
at  the  first  impression,  they  assuredly  appear  to  fulfil 
the  conditions  of  the  Star  of  the  Magi. 

But,  even  supposing  the  Magi  did  undertake  the  jour- 
ney, at  the  time  in  question,  it  seems  improbable  that 
the  conjunction  of  December  can,  on  any  reasonable 
grounds,  be  considered  as  fulfilling  the  conditions  in 
Matthew  ii.  9.  The  circumstances  are  as  follows : 
On  December  4,  the  sun  set  at  Jerusalem  at  5  P.  M. 
Supposing  the  Magi  to  have  then  commenced  their 
journey  to  Jerusalem,  they  would  first  see  Jupiter,  and 
his  dull,  and  somewhat  distant,  companion,  one  and  a  half 
hour  distant  from  the  meridian,  in  a  south-east  direction, 
and  decidedly  to  the  east  of  Bethlehem.  By  the  time 
they  came  to  Rachael's  tomb  (see  Robinson's  Biblical 
Researches,  xi.  56<S),  the  planets  would  be  due  south  of 
them,  on  the  meridian,  and  no  longer  over  the  hill  of 
Bethlehem  (see  the  maps  of  Vandervelde  and  of  Tobler)  ; 
for  that  village  (see  Robinson,  as  above)  bears  from 
Rachael's  tomb,  South  5°  East  -\-  8°  declension  = 
South,  13°  East.  The  road  then  takes  a  turn  to  the 
East,  and  ascends  the  hill  near  to  its  western  extremity  ; 
the  planets,  would,  therefore,  be  now  on  their  right 
hand,  and  a  little  behind  them  :  "the  Star,"  therefore, 
ceased  altogether  to  go  "before  them,"  as  a  guide.  Ar- 
rived on  the  hill,  and  in  the  village,  it  became  physi- 
cally impossible  for  the  Star  to  stand  over  any  house 
whatever  close  to  them,  seeing  that  it  was  now  visible 
far  away  beyond  the  hill,  to  the  West,  and  far  off  in  the 
heavens,  at  an   altitude  of  o7°«      As  they  advanced,  the 


156  Kepler's  discovery. 

Star  would,  of  necessity,  recede  ;  and  under  no  circum- 
stances could  it  be  said  to  stand  "over"  any  house, 
unless  at  the  distance  of  miles  from  the  place  where  they 
were.  .  .  A  star,  if  vertical,  would  appear  to  stand 
over  any  house  or  object  to  which  a  spectator  might 
chance  to  be  near;  but  a  star  at  an  altitude  of  57°, 
could  appear  to  stand  over  no  house  or  object  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  observer.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  add,  that,  if  the  Magi  had  left  the  Jaffa 
gate  before  sunset,  they  would  not  have  seen  the  planets 
at  the  outset ;  and  if  they  had  left  Jerusalem  later, 
"  the  Star  "  would  have  been  a  more  useless  scuide  than 
before.  Thus,  the  beautiful  phantasm  of  Kepler  and 
Ideler,  which  has  fascinated  so  many  writers,  vanishes 
before  the  more  perfect  dayhght  of  investigation. 

Grateful  for  this  minute  and  difficult  investigation,  I 
almost  distrust  its  accuracy,  from  the  carelessness  of  its 
allusion  to  Kepler.  The  phantasy,  that  the  Star  of  the 
Magi  was  a  conjunction  of  planets,  may  "vanish  before 
the  more  perfect  daylight  of  investigation,"  but  it  never 
deluded  him.  The  celestial  foretokenings — as  they 
seemed  to  Kepler — in  the  year  747,  he  thought  of,  as 
continuing  into  the  year  748,  and  as  reaching  the  cul- 
mination of  their  promise  only  when  the  three  planets 
met  together.  To  him,  that  golden  circle  of  auspicious 
fire  was  but  the  herald  of  the  New  Star  —  even  as  John 
was  but  the  herald  of  Christ.  It  was  not  that  Lisrht, 
but  was  sent  to  bear  witness  of  that  LiG:ht. 

Since  the  New  Star  was  the  immediate  cause  that 
moved  the  Magi  to  undertake  their  Pilgrimage,  the  con- 


Kepler's  discovery.  157 

junctions  of  the  planets,  in  747  and  748,  may  seem  to  be 
so  disjoined  from  it,  as  in  no  way  to  aid  in  explaining 
it.  Not  so,  however.  As  history  before,  so  science 
now,  enables  us  to  answer  difficult  questions  that  have 
been  pressed  against  the  narrative.  Strauss  demands. 
How  could  the  Magi,  from  a  Star,  have  known  the  birth 
of  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?  —  a  thing,  he  would,  perchance, 
have  said  credible,  only  in  credulous  ages,  with  deluded 
votaries  of  exploded  art.  Once,  it  would  have  sufficed 
to  have  said.  The  Lord  may  have  told  them.  It  would 
now  and  ever  suffice,  were  it  not  that  there  is  no  inti- 
mation of  this  in  their  inspired  history ;  and  had  it  been 
the  fact,  the  Magi  would  have  been  quick  to  declare, 
the  Evangelist  to  record  it.  It  is,  therefore,  to  be  sup- 
posed they  were  led  to  their  conclusion,  as  men  are 
usually  guided  to  truth,  not,  indeed,  without  divine 
grace,  yet,  in  the  course  of  events.  The  grace  of  God 
is  not  thus  lessened,  and  the  faith  of  man  is  exalted. 

A  course  of  preceding  events,  such  as  might  have  led 
the  Wise  Men  to  Jerusalem,  may  be  pointed  out,  by  con- 
necting together  circumstances  that  are,  all  of  them, 
either  credible  or  certain.  They  had  faith  in  ancient  tra- 
ditions. This  is  the  inner  key  to  the  secret  of  their 
Pilgrimage  ;  which  is  explained  on  the  supposition  that 
their  own  traditions,  the  belief,  at  that  time,  of  the  near 
appearing  of  some  Great  Person  in  Judea,  their  astro- 
logical notions,  and  the  planetary  signs,  were  the 
antecedent,  related  causes  of  that  faith  in  the  significance 
of  the  New  Star  which  did  send  them  to  Jerusalem. 

The  expectant  wonder  of  Kepler,  and  of  all   the  as- 


158  Kepler's  discovery. 

trologers  of  his  time,  as  they  watched  the  planetary 
signs  at  the  close  of  the  year  1603,  and  in  the  following 
spring,  well  illustrates  the  feelings  with  which  we  may 
suppose  those  ancient  astrologers,  on  the  night  of  the 
29th  of  May,  in  the  year  of  Rome  747,  to  have  wit- 
nessed, in  the  cloudless  sky  of  the  East,  the  greeting  of 
the  planets  Jupiter  and  Saturn.  With  mingling  feelings 
of  human  curiosity  and  religious  wonder,  these  devout 
astrologers  gaze  on  this  planetary  omen,  believed  by 
them  to  be  a  sio^n  for  Judea.  The  thouofht,  that  this 
portent  might  foretell  that  the  birth  of  its  long-expected 
King  was,  at  least,  nigh,  takes  quick  possession  of  their 
souls,  as  they  inquire  within  themselves.  What  can, 
what  does  this  mean?  What  oreat  thinGf  has  come,  or  is 
about  to  come,  to  pass  in  the  land  of  Judea  ?  In  the 
month  of  September,  this  marvel  renewed,  kindles  their 
hearts  to  yet  greater  earnestness  of  inquiring  hope.  And , 
when,  in  December,  the  mystic  sign,  for  the  third  time, 
is  repeated,  and  when,  in  the  following  spring,  these 
celestial  foretokenings  reach  the  fulness  of  the  perfect 
number  of  four,  and  yet  another  planet  joins  in  this 
greeting  and  language  of  the  spheres,  their  faith  rises 
near  to  the  height  of  certainty  ;  and  when,  at  last,  the 
New  Star  appears,  these  unsleeping  watchers  of  the 
prophesying  heavens  instantly  connect  all  these  con- 
tinuous signs  and  wonders  in  the  firmament,  and  feel, 
with  an  assurance  to  which  an  audible  voice  from  the 
skies  would  have  added  not,  that  the  Star,  so  gloriously 
marshalled  by  attesting  planets  to  its  place  on  high,  is, 
indeed,  the  long-predicted  Star  of  tlie  King  of  the  Jews, 


Kepler's  discovery.  159 

and  that  He  is  born.  The  apparition  of  His  Star  Is 
to  them  what  St.  Augustine  calls  it  —  lingua  coeli  — 
a  word  from  heaven. 

An  explanation,  then,  of  their  Pilgrimage  is  given  ; 
an  explanation  that  consists  of  facts.  Thus,  it  is  a  fact 
that  there  was  an  oracle  that,  in  ancient  times,  was  un- 
derstood to  foretell  that  the  Birth  of  One,  afterwards 
known  as  the  Messiah,  would  be  announced  by  a  star: 
it  is  a  fact  that  this  oracle  was  known  to  Daniel ;  that 
the  Time  of  the  Messiah  was  revealed  to  him  ;  that  he 
had  great  authority  with  the  Magi ;  that  his  prevision 
of  the  Messiah  was  in  harmony  with  their  belief,  that 
prophets  would  be  sent  on  earth  by  Orraazd.  It  is  a 
fact,  that,  at  the  time  of  their  Pilgrimage,  there  was  a 
wide-spread  expectation  that  this  oracle  and  this  pro- 
phecy were  about  to  be  fulfiled  ;  it  is  a  fact,  that,  about 
that  time,  there  were  signs  in  the  planets,  astrologlcally 
in  harmony  with  that  belief;  and  it  is  also  a  fact,  that, 
about  that  time,  a  New  Star  did  appear. 

Yet,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  an  explanation 
of  a  very  extraordinary  event,  —  and  such  the  Pilgrimage 
of  the  Magi  was,  — an  explanation  reaching  to  causes 
lying  far  back,  where  history  is  imperfect,  must,  in  a 
measure,  be  conjectural ;  and  it  would  not  be  reasonable 
to  hold,  for  a  certainty,  that,  between  the  Maglan  PIl- 
ofrlmaoe  and  each  and  all  of  the  facts  of  which  this  ex- 
planation  consists,  there  was  the  direct  relation  of  effect 
and  cause.  As  to  some  of  them,  that  relation  is  a 
matter  of  conjecture  only;  but,  still,  It  is  by  no  means 
such   to    all    of    them.      As    to    some  of   them — the 


160  kepler's  discovery. 

expectation  among  the  Jews,  for  instance  —  there  is 
only  a  strong  probability  of  this  relation ;  but,  as  to 
others,  there  is  direct  evidence  of  it.  Thus,  there  is 
evidence  in  the  words  of  the  Magi,  that  Daniel's  pro- 
phecy, and  the  oracle  of  the  Star,  were  among  the 
causes  of  their  Pilgrimage.  And  it  should  be  added,  that, 
even  if  they  knew  nothing  of  the  Hebrew  expectation  in 
their  time,  they  might  have  arrived  at  the  same  feeling, 
from  the  time-data  in  that  prophecy.  There  is  no  direct 
evidence  that  the  conjunctions  of  the  planets  were  ob- 
served by  them ;  yet  they  were  astrologers,  and  those 
celestial  phenomena  were  so  marked  and  repeated,  that  the 
intrinsic  probability  of  this  is  scarcely  less  than  certainty. 
Undoubtedly  this  explanation  does  not  —  it  is  not 
possible  that  it  should  —  include  some,  perchance  many, 
peculiar,  indispensable,  providential  occurrences  in  the 
lives  of  these  Pilgrims,  or  in  the  times  before  them, 
that  directly  and  powerfully  tended  towards  this  mem- 
orable Pilgrimage.  These  will  be  known  only  in 
the  time  of  the  resuiTCCtion  of  the  just,  when  all 
the  wonders  of  God's  grace  and  man's  fidelity  shall 
stand  revealed.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is 
such  fulness  in  this  explanation,  that  some  parts  of  it 
might  be  varied,  and  yet  detract  little  from  its  coherence, 
or  omitted,  and  detract  little  from  its  validity.  Wher- 
ever there  is  a  fact  to  be  explained,  —  and  the  Pilgrimage 
of  Magi  to  Jerusalem  is  a  fact,  —  an  explanation  of  it, 
that  is  clear  and  perfect,  has  in  itself  some  evidence  of 
correctness.  The  explanation,  then,  given  of  this  Pil- 
grimage,  being  made   up  of  facts,   and    the   relations 


Kepler's  discovery.  161 

between  it  and  them  being  either  matters  of  direct 
evidence  or  of  strong  probability,  is  such  as,  in  a 
purely  historical  inquiry,  involving  no  religious  ques- 
tions, and  provoking  no  hostile  feelings  and  prejudices, 
would  be  accepted  as  so  consistent,  probable,  and 
complete,  as  to  be  beyond  reasonable  doubt ;  and  an 
explanation  might  fall  short  of  this,  and  yet  be  a 
sufficient  answer  to  all  who,  on  historic  grounds,  have 
decried  this  Pilmmage  to  Jerusalem  as  incredible. 

The  latter  part  of  this  explanation,  alone,  would  suf- 
fice for  this,  so  far  as  they  are  offended  at  what  they 
term  the  astrological  cause  of  the  Pilgrimage  — that  is, 
the  appearing  of  a  Star  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord's  Birth. 
The  New  Star  of  the  Annus  Domini  is  witnessed  to  by 
astronomers  of  yesterday,  as  the  New  Star  of  1604  is 
witnessed  to  by  Kepler  and  other  astronomers  of  to-day. 
These  late  astronomers  also  attest,  that,  near  the 
time  of  our  Lord's  Birth,  there  were  four  conjunctions 
of  planets,  believed  by  astrologers  to  be  significant  of 
great  events  in  Judea.  This  scientific  fact,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  other,  is  a  sufficient  answer  to 
those  who,  for  the  reason  assigned,  have  decried  this 
Pilo^rimao'e  as  a  thino^  incredible  :  is  sufficient  to  ex- 
plain  what  Infidelity  has  challenged  the  Church  to  tell 
—  how,  from  a  Star,  the  Magi  knew  the  Birth  of  the 
King  of  the  Jews. 

This  very  challenge  shows  that  lack  of  imagination 

characteristic  of  all  schools  of  infidelity,  under  whatever 

name   disguised.     Of  learning,  in   the  sense    of  mere 

heaps  of  facts,  some  of  them  have  more  than  they  know 

11 


1G2 


how  to  use  ;  but  not  in  the  sense  of  having  power  to  dis- 
cern the  spiritual  laws  expressed,  or  intimated,  in  facts. 
No  great  learning,  even  in  the  lowest  sense  of  the  word, 
was  required  in  professed  critics,  to  know  that  the  as- 
trological map  of  the  heavens  corresponded  with  the 
map  of  the  earth ;  and  it  should  not  have  been  difficult 
for  them  to  have  made  the  easy  supposition,  that  the 
new  Star  shone  in  what  was  astrologically  held  to  be  the 
Judean  quarter  of  the  sky,  and  there,  from  its  position 
or  time  with  respect  to  the  planets,  indicated,  according 
to  the  notions  of  the  art,  some  great  event ;  and  that, 
through  the  time-data  given  by  the  prophet  Daniel,  or 
through  the  wide-spread  belief  of  the  time,  the  Magi 
readily  interpreted  this  Judean  sign  to  mean  the  Coming 
of  some  mysterious  Person  in  that  country.  The  most 
recondite  and  questionable  thing  in  this  supposition, 
sixteen  centuries  subsequent  to  the  event,  was  discovered, 
by  a  devout  astronomer,  to  have  been  the  fact. 

That  God  ordained  Kepler  should  discover  this,  is 
very  remarkable ;  for,  if  ever,  in  these  latter  days, 
there  has  been  a  Magian  born,  it  was  Kepler.  Dili- 
gently to  search  in  nature  for  intimations  of  God  was 
the  characteristic  of  the  Magi ;  and  this  was  the  breath 
of  life  to  him,  who,  through  his  intuition  of  relation  and 
harmony  pervading  all  space  and  time,  through  his 
reverential  trust  in  God's  word,  and  through  his  study 
of  the  records  of  the  skies,  found  the  lost  fact  completing 
the  series  of  facts  that  elucidate  and  confirm  the  honor- 
able history  of  his  brethren.  Thus,  as  inspired  sages 
wrought    more    harmoniously  together  than  they  were 


KEPLEll's    DISCOVERY.  1G3 

aware,  so  the  sages  who  walk  with  the  Lord  in  the 
reahn  of  nature  are  unconsciously  harmonious  in  the 
results  of  their  divinely-guided  lives. 

Throughout  these  inquiries,  I  have  folded  the  wing 
of  the  imagination,  and  chosen  to  dwell  in  the  sober 
precincts  of  the  logical  reason ;  to  dream  no  dreams, 
though,  hereafter,  I  might  wake  to  find  them  true  ;  that, 
on  every  page,  I  might  command  a  calm,  intelligent 
assent;  yet,  here,  I  cannot  but  point  out  to  the  imagi- 
nation a  correspondence  that  would  have  charmed  the 
the  soul  of  Kepler.  In  the  astronomical  facts  redis- 
covered by  him,  when  viewed  in  their  relation  to  the 
Pilgrimage  of  the  Magi,  there  is  that  beautiful  sym- 
bolism that  runs  through  all  the  ways  of  grace,  and  is 
the  sacred  poetry  both  of  nature  and  of  life.  The  rays 
of  the  three  planets,  near,  yet  distinct,  correspond  to 
the  light  of  nature,  of  primitive  religion,  and  of  Hebraic 
revelation,  blending  their  influences  in  the  souls  of  the 
Wise ;  and  the  new  Star  corresponds  to  the  Greater 
Liorht. 

o 

Up  to  the  moment  wdien  the  Star  of  the  Lord  shone 
in  the  heavens,  there  seems,  in  the  antecedent  events 
related  to  the  Coming  of  the  Wise  Men,  nothing,  in  the 
strict  sense  divine,  save  what  was  due  to  the  primeval 
religion,  and  to  the  oracles  in  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Hebrews  ;  and  a  similar  origin  of  the  wide-spread  belief 
of  the  Orient,  that,  at  that  time,  a  Ruler  would  go  forth 
from  Judea,  did  not  secure,  for  that  belief,  direct  men- 
tion on  the  sacred  page.  All  that  prepared  the  Magi 
to  recognize  the  Star  was  bound  together  by  a  thread 


164  kepi^r's  discovery. 

of  divine  weaving ;  but,  in  it,  there  was  no  immediate 
supernatural  intervention.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that 
St.  Matthew,  even  if  he  knew  of  them,  did  not  record 
the  planetary  conjunctions.  They  were  facts  of  nature, 
left  to  be  made  known  to  the  Church,  when  most  needful 
to  it,  by  one  solemnly  elected  of  God  to  publish  the 
laws  and  harmonies  of  the  material  universe :  that, 
coeval  with  the  Advent  of  the  Lord  of  the  Heavens  to 
the  earth,  a  new  Star  shone,  heralding  this  through  all 
the  worlds,  and  dating  it  through  all  time  ;  that  when 
He  by  Whom  all  things  were  made,  and  without 
Whom,  there  was  not  anything,  lay  in  the  manger 
in  Bethlehem,  the  apparent  sign  of  the  glory  He 
had  before  He  made  the  worlds  was  seen  in  the 
Heavens  —  this,  the  inspired  Evangelist  records  alike 
for  itself,  and  for  the  miracle  of  its  Guiding  to  its  Lord, 
in  virtue  of  both  of  which  it  holds  high  place  on  the 
eternal  page. 

Not,  then,  of  those  planetary  phenomena  that  Kepler 
rediscovered,  but  of  a  new  Star,  the  Magi  speak,  when 
they  say,  they  beheld  the  Star  of  the  King.  This  har- 
monizes, exactly  and  decisively,  with  their  Coming. 
Their  Pilgrimage  might  have  followed  upon  the  con- 
junction of  the  planets ;  yet  the  faith  that  braved  the 
toils  and  dangers  of  their  long  road  is  so  high-toned, 
that  it  requires  that  decisive  intimation.  This  accom- 
plished what  all  else  prepared  for.  It  sent  them  to 
Jerusalem.  History  and  science  elucidate  the  sublime 
lesson  of  the  power,  the  wisdom,  and  the  reward  of  Faith 
in   the    Coming  of  the  Wise  Men   to   the  Lord;    yet 


Kepler's  discovery.  165 

the  Gospel  alone  gives,  what  the  records  of  history 
and  the  researches  of  science,  though  tending  that  way, 
lack,  the  full  explanation,  on  its  human  side,  of 
that  abounding  and  unshaken  confidence  with  which 
these  Magi  proclaimed,  in  astonished,  affrighted,  unbe- 
lieving Jerusalem,  the  Birth  of  its  King. 


166  THE    ASTROLOGICAL   ELEMENT 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   ASTROLOGICAL   ELEMENT   IN   THE  NARRATIVE. 

The  Story  of  the  Wise  Men  is  so  fraught  with  wis- 
dom above  the  thoughts  of  men,  is  so  suited  to  wants 
and  wishes  of  the  soul,  that,  were  it  only  a  tradition, 
the  Christian  would  feel,  and  wisely  feel,  that  it  must 
be  true.  Yet  moral,  historical,  and  scientific  arguments 
have  been  arrayed  against  it. 

The  scientific,  attempt  to  oppose  to  it,  especially  to 
what  is  said  of  the  Star's  Guiding,  the  authority  of  the 
science,  fondly  and  admiringly  thought  most  exact  and 
complete  ;  until,  a  little  time  ago,  the  storm  of  meteors 
disturbed  the  calm  of  the  heavens,  and  the  dream  of 
the  perfection  of  Astronomy. 

The  historical,  bear  against  an  event,  referred  to  by 
no  Evangelist  or  Apostle,  save  St.  Matthew,  and  with 
not  a  line  in  the  writings  of  its  century,  as  they  now 
exist,  that  alludes  to  it.  Without  formally  so  doing,  I 
have  answered  the  <2:reater  historical  aro^uments  aojainst 
the  narrative;  and,  in  another  book  —  on  the  religious 
Truth  it  reveals  —  I  hope  so  to  answer  tlie  astronomical, 
as  to  illustrate  the  fact,  that,  so  far  from  the  attempt  to 
make  any  Scripture  seem  more  credible,  by  arbitrarily 
lessening  the  supernatural  element  in  it,  ever  succeeding. 


IX   THE   NARRATIVE.  167 

the  more  fearlessly  that  is  set  forth  in  its  real  grandeur, 
the  more  it  has  power  over  the  reason. 

The  moral  ars^ument  asrainst  the  narrative  is  this  : 
the  outshining  of  a  new  Star  at  the  Birth  of  Jesus,  the 
coincidence  of  its  appearing  with  the  expectation  awak- 
ened by  prophecy,  and  the  Star's  Guiding  believers  in 
starry  influences,  countenanced  and  strengthened  the 
pretended  Art  of  Astrology,  which  was  all  delusion  and 
mischief. 

The  ready  horror  at  everything  that  even  seems  to 
accredit  superstitious  or  unscientific  notions,  and,  so, 
mio^ht  turn  us  back  towards  the  Dark  Aofes,  is  such, 
that  it  may  be  well  to  give  a  thought  to  the  extent  of 
this  alleged  strengthening  of  Astrology.  For  ages 
before,  and  after,  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  was  written, 
belief  in  Astrology  w\as  so  entire,  that  it  could  have 
received  no  strength  from  it.  If  ever  it  gave  it  any, 
it  was  at  the  very  time  when  Astrology  fell  into  dis- 
credit, because  that,  through  the  teachings  of  Chris- 
tianity, man  began  to  attain  to  humility  in  the  study  of 
nature.  If  the  signs  and  wonders  revealed,  as  to  the 
Star  of  the  Lord,  then  made  an  impression  somewhat 
favorable  to  Astrology,  this  was  of  small  account,  as 
Christianity  was  to  put  an  end  to  it.  The  prevailing 
magic  was  somewhat  confirmed  by  the  wonders  wrought 
by  the  Apostles  ;  the  truths  they  preached  w^ere  followed 
by  perversions  that,  without  those  truths,  had  never 
been ;  Christianity  gave,  for  the  instant,  some  new 
strength  to  superstition ;  but,  what  argument  against  it 
are  these  errors,  when  the  fulness  of  its  light  was  to  dis- 


168  THE   ASTROLOGICAL   ELEMENT 

pel  them  forever  ?  Shall  the  mistakes  consequent  upon 
the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  be  charged  against  the 
Lord?  or  shall  His  works  of  majesty  and  grace  be 
barred  by  human  perversions  of  them?  He  set  the 
stars  in  the  firmament,  with  their  changes  and  seasons  — 
the  Art  of  Astrology  followed  :  He  set  his  own  Star  in 
the  firmament,  and  some  confirmation  of  the  Art  fol- 
lowed. For  such  things  as  these,  was  He  to  stay  his 
hand  in  Heaven? 

But  the  real  strength  of  the  argument  against  the 
fiicts,  that  the  Lord  used  the  astral  lore  of  the  Magi  as 
a  medium  of  communication  with  them,  and  led  them 
in  ways  familiar  to  their  thoughts  as  astrologers,  lies 
not  in  the  harm  that  followed  these  things,  be  that  more, 
or  less,  or  none,  but  in  the  idea  that  they  were  wrong. 
This  we  meet,  in  part,  by  being  more  just  to  the  astrol- 
ogy of  the  Magi,  than  when  we  seemed  to  concede  it 
was  all  error  and  mischief.  The  germ  of  oldest  science 
was  the  divination  of  a  preestablished  resemblance  or 
harmony  between  the  spiritual  and  material  worlds —  the 
grand  thought,  that  all  the  creation  of  the  one  God  must 
be  one  whole.  From  this,  as  from  the  idea  of  one  God, 
out  of  which  sprung  the  idea  of  one  universe,  the  soul 
rapidly  fell  off  into  low  notions  of  the  creation,  and  of 
the  Creator ;  but  each  left  its  uneffaceable  traces  on  the 
science  and  on  the  religion  of  the  earliest  ages.  As- 
trology was  one  form  of  the  aspiration  to  verify  the 
oldest,  the  most  religious,  of  scientific  ideas.  It  held 
that  there  is  a  correspondence  and  a  sympathy  between 
the  material   and   the  spiritual   worlds,  and,  hence,  it 


IN   THE    NARRATIVE.  169 

looked  for  coincidences  between  the  phenomena  in  the 
skies,  and  the  fates  of  men.  The  thought  is  grandly 
true ;  but  cannot  be  applied  with  the  minuteness  with 
which  astrology  claimed  to  apply  it,  because  the  limited 
faculties  of  man  cannot  grasp  all  those  harmonies  that 
make  all  spirits  and  all  worlds  one  sentient  whole. 

Fools  mock  at  the  contrasted  hope  and  failure  of  the 
astrologer;  but  high  aims,  though  seldom  entirely  suc- 
cessful, are  as  seldom  entirely  fruitless.  All  that  man 
accomplishes  springs  from  them.  Without  the  vain 
aspirations  of  the  youth,  would  never  be  achieved  the 
little  of  the  man,  that  forms  so  humble  a  contrast  to  the 
visions  of  the  boy  ;  and  what  is  true  of  the  individual 
is  true  of  the  race. 

Astrology  was  not  for  naught.  As  Chemistry  of 
Alchemy,  so  Astronomy  was  born  of  Astrology.  As- 
trology was  not  useless.  It  is  something,  that  it  proved 
that  what  it  aimed  at  was  impossible,  so  that,  with 
humbler  hope,  man  might  seek  the  attainable.  Next  to 
him  who  shows  that  the  difficult  is  possible,  is  he  who 
shows  that  it  is  impossible.  Each  serves  the  Lord  : 
the  one,  by  opening  a  path  where  none  seemed  to  be ; 
the  other,  by  closing  up  the  road  of  delusion. 

The  first  chemical  experiments  were  made  by  Al- 
chemists ;  the  first  maps  of  the  heavens,  by  Astrologers. 
The  art  of  Astrology,  like  every  human  art  and  every 
human  science,  was  blended  truth  and  error;  and  if 
the  Lord  could  not  have  conversed  with  Astrologers, 
then  he  cannot  converse  with  men  of  science  at  all,  in 
and  through  their  pursuits ;  and  there  are  no  limits  to 


170  THE    ASTROLOGICAL   ELEMENT 

the  exclusion  of  the  Sph-it  of  God  from  the  soul  of  man 
that  logically  follows  ;  for  all  human  conceptions,  alike 
of  things  material  and  of  things  spiritual,  have  in  them 
some  quality  of  error.  If  the  Lord  cannot  commune 
with  souls  in  which  vain  aspirations  are,  and  thoughts 
that  err,  he  cannot  commune  with  man.  It  were  better 
to  adore,  than  to  cavil  at  the  self-devotion  of  his  Spirit, 
who,  unrepelled,  even  by  guilt,  mercifully  follows  men, 
as  they  wander  away  from  Him,  down  into  the  drear 
wastes  of  error  and  sin. 

The  Wise  Men  were  not  only  different  from  those 
self-styled  Magians  who  disgraced  the  honor  of  the 
name,  but  were  the  few,  in  whom  whatever  was  most 
spiritual  in  their  order  found  its  most  perfect  expression. 
The  errors  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  and  the  darker 
aspects  of  their  order,  have  as  little  to  do  with  our  con- 
ception of  these  men,  as  "  the  vain  traditions  "  of  the 
Jews,  or  the  cruelty  of  the  Pharisees,  with  our  concep- 
tion of  the  believing  souls  in  Jerusalem.  These  were 
the  elect  few  of  the  Jews  ;  those,  of  the  Magi. 

Their  religion  fostered,  in  the  more  spiritual  of  the 
Magi,  a  reverential,  believing  spirit,  that  looked,  in 
nature  and  in  life,  for  the  presence  and  purpose  of  God. 
In  virtue  of  this  God-seeking  spirit,  the  Wise  Men,  as 
reverently  they  watched  the  stars  in  their  courses,  made 
the  sublimest  discovery  in  the  heavens  ever  made  by 
man.  Who  will  restore  to  Astronomy  this  lost  glory? 
When  will  the  Magian  be  born,  who,  amid  the  glitter- 
ing hosts  on  high,  will  point  out,  again,  the  Star  of 
Bethlehem  ? 


IN   THE   NARRATIVE.  171 

These  Magians  very  truthfully  conceived  that  the  God 
of  Heaven  was  wamno^  real  war  with  sin,  and  that  his 
triumph  over  Ahriman  would  be  wrought  out,  not 
through  the  foolishness  of  culture,  philosophy,  or  science, 
but  by  prophets  sent  from  God,  of  whom  the  last, 
mighty  to  save,  as  a  man,  would  conquer  the  Evil  One. 
In  spiritual  souls,  this  truth  was  persuasive  to  a  living 
faith  in  God,  that  waited  and  watched  for  His  redemp- 
tion. The  God  of  Heaven  honored  this  spirit  in  the 
Wise  Men.  These  Magians  watched,  without  ceasing, 
in  the  material  and  spiritual  worlds,  for  the  Divine ; 
and  it  was  divinely  appropriate  that  they  should  be 
led  to  find  Him,  in  whom  met  Heaven  and  Earth,  Hu- 
manity and  Divinity. 

All  the  supernatural  in  the  Story  of  the  Wise  Men  is 
self-proved :  the  narrative  of  their  presence  with  the 
Lord  is  self-authenticating  throughout,  when  the  natural, 
in  their  history,  is  understood.  For  the  spirit  of  these 
men  having  been  such  as  it  was,  the  Lord  must  have 
brought  them  as  near  to  himself  as  it  was  then  possible 
for  them  to  come,  and  in  ways  fitted  to  their  religiously 
scientific  spirit. 

Wise  through  faith  beyond  their  knowledge,  their 
hearts  were  so  in  sympathy  with  the  purpose  of  God  to 
"  send  his  own  Son  into  the  world,  not  to  condemn  the 
world,  but  that,  through  Him,  the  world  might  be 
saved,"  that  they  believed  in  a  sacred  promise  of  a  Re- 
deemer to  come ;  and  when  these  astronomers  looked 
unto  the  heavens,  to  behold  there  the  predicted  sign  of 
His  coming  on  the  earth,  the  Lord  set  His  bright  and 


172  THE   ASTROLOGICAL   ELEMENT 

morning  Star  before  them ;  and  when,  through  Faith, 
they  came  to  His  own  city,  found  there  no  knowledge 
of  the  discovery  they  made  afar  off,  went  out  from 
thence,  waited  on  by  no  Pharisee,  no  scribe,  no  priest, 
strangers  in  the  Holy  Land,  seeking,  unaided  of  men, 
its  Lord,  the  rays  of  His  Star  led  them,  until  the  attest- 
ing splendor  stood  over  where  the  Lord  lay.  Science 
has  no  story  like  this,  of  recognition  from  the  Eternal 
mind  !  Keligion,  few  more  touching  words  than  these 
of  God's  kindness  to  men  in  darkness,  seeking  for  the 
Light ;  in  the  night  of  heathenism,  for  the  Star  of  Jacob  ! 
Great  their  Faith ;  great  its  reward  !  The  roll  of  the 
men  of  old  time  who  obtained  a  good  report  through 
Faith  is  written  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  the 
roll  of  honor  of  the  new  time  opens  with  the  Wise  Men. 
They  preach  forever,  that  to  Faith  wisdom  is  given. 
By  Faith  they  crossed  plains,  deserts,  mountains,  and 
journeyed  far  to  the  Holy  City.  The  capital  knew  not 
its  King.  In  little  Bethlehem  they  found  only  a  maiden 
mother  tending  an  infant;  yet,  with  undaunted  Faith, 
"when  they  saw  the  Young  Child  and  His  mother,' 
they  fell  down  and  worshipped  Him  ;  "  and,  setting  forth 
truths  greater  than  they  knew,  they  offered,  to  the  Sou 
of  Man  and  Son  of  God,  myrrh,  hinting  at  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead ;  the  royal  gold ;  and  frankincense 
that  breathes  of  prayer,  —  "myrrh  to  a  mortal,  gold  to 
a  kin  or   frankincense  to  God."  ^ 


^  This  mystic  significance  of  the  gifts  is  marked  by  all  the 
earlier  Christians  who  refer  to   them.     The  learned  Arch- 


IN   THE   NARRATIVE.  173' 

The  Mediaeval  Age,  with  passion,  cried,  these  men 
were  Kings  !  Let  us  catch  the  thought,  roll  on  the 
cry.  Indeed,  they  were  Kings  —  of  God  anointed  !  — 
Sovereigns  in  the  realm  of  truth  ! 

On  the  bank  of  the  Rhine  the  zeal  of  toilino^  centu- 
ries  strove  to  build,  to  their  praise,  the  noblest  fabric  of 
mediasval  art ;  its  skyward-pointing  spires  are  yet  rising 
higher  and  higher  toward  the  heavens ;  and  so  the 
honor  that  should  be  given  them  among  men  is  yet  an 
unfinished  thing. 

bishop  Trench  says,  "  The  earliest  writer,  I  believe,  who 
makes  this  application,  at  least  of  those  who  have  come 
down  to  us,  is  Irenagus."  —  Star  of  the  Wise  Men. 


INSPIRATION   OF   ST.    MATTHEW.  175 


CHAPTER   X. 

INSPIRATION   OF   ST.    MATTHEW. 

The  words  of  St.  Matthew  have  here  been  inter- 
preted in  the  clear  light  of  the  idea  that  they  were 
selected  with  a  thous^htfulness  of  wisdom.  This  idea  is 
not  altogether  in  harmony  with  the  notion  that  the 
Gospels  are  rude  chronicles,  whose  power  is  manifestly 
divine,  because  of  their  humility  of  style.  But  it  is  in 
harmony  with  the  fact.  All  Scripture  shows  that  inspi- 
ration was  given  to  fitting  recipients ;  and  that  this 
fitness  depended  on  mental,  no  less  certainly  than  on 
moral,  endowments  ;  on  qualities  of  the  head,  as  surely 
as  on  those  of  the  heart. 

St.  Matthew  has  not  the  precision  of  a  diffuse  style,  — 
if,  indeed,  such  a  style  ever  is  precise,  —  but  of  a  style 
that,  saying  little,  means  much  ;  where  every  line  and 
word  can  be  justified ;  and  where  precision  ever  is, 
though,  to  the  superficial  eye,  it  may  not  seem  to  be 
there.  Thus,  by  their  title,  he  exactly  describes  those 
who  came  to  Jerusalem,  and  his  geographical  phrases 
are  definite. 

But,  it  will  be  said,  this  finds  too  much  in  his  words  ; 
all  versions  of  the  Gospel  overlook  his  distinction  be- 
tween  the   East   and   the   Far  East ;  and   the    general 


176  INSPIRATION   OF   ST.    MATTHEW. 

comment  says,  these  terms  signify  only  that  the  Wise 
Men  came  from  one  of  the  four  winds.  This  is  true; 
and  because  it  is  so,  there  is  some  reason  to  have  charity 
for  those  who,  in  consequence  of  this  failure  in  inter- 
pretation, pronounce  their  history  a  fable  ;  and  the  more 
reason,  as  this  low  interpretation  of  the  Evangelist's 
words,  at  the  beginning,  running  through  the  narrative, 
debases  it  into  an  incongruous  legend,  where  the  Magi 
are  dishonored  into  fortune-tellers,  and  the  Star  of  the 
Lord  into  a  Jack-o'-lantern. 

But,  even  with  this  low  notion  as  to  St.  Matthew's 
words,  our  conclusions  can  be  maintained.  Thus  far 
St.  Matthew  has  been  vindicated,  as  any  other  historian 
might  have  been ;  but  the  erroneous  notions  as  to  the 
force  of  some  of  his  words  require  that  the  true  inter- 
pretation of  them  should  be  strengthened  by  conclusions 
drawn  from  the  fact,  that  St.  Matthew  was  not  a  his- 
torian merely,  but  also  an  Evangelist ;  from  the  fact, 
that  the  inspired  writers  sometimes  uttered  truths,  the 
significance  and  the  relations  of  which  they  knew  but  in 
part,  yet  whose  expression,  having  in  it  a  divine  element 
of  perfection,  has,  in  time,  conveyed  to  the  Church 
more  full  and  precise  ideas  than  to  them. 

When,  to  the  high  historic  qualities  of  the  Evangelists, 
there  was  superadded  the  enlightening,  restraining,  and 
guiding  of  the  Spirit  of  all  Wisdom,  there  was  a  Gos- 
pel, fourfold  in  form,  yet  one  in  spirit;  reproducing  a 
Life  so  mysterious,  that,  to  reproduce  it  in  such  per- 
fection, surpassed  the  human  genius.  To  believe  this,  is 
no  disparagement  of  their  natural  gifts  ;   and  their  genius 


INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MATTHEW.  177 

should  not  be  depreciated  to  honor  their  inspiration. 
This  honors  neither.  Those  who  appreciate  them  as 
historians  will  not  doubt  their  inspiration. 

All  that  sense  and  genius  could,  they  gave  their  gos- 
pels. Each  imparted  to  his  something  of  his  own  soul. 
Beyond  this,  Divine  Wisdom  gave  to  each  of  the  gos- 
pels, and  to  the  Gospel  as  a  whole,  what  human  genius 
was  not  competent  to  give  —  a  fulness  and  precision 
of  wisdom  in  every  line  and  word.  It  watched  over 
thoughts,  words,  images ;  so  adjusting  the  relations 
of  these,  that  Scripture  is  one  Scripture.  It  made  it 
vital  with  one  life,  breathing  through  all  its  forms, 
whether  history,  or  biography,  or  precept,  or  doctrine  ; 
whether  proverb,  or  parable,  or  song,  or  prophecy, 
or  epistle.  Not  nicer  the  adjustments  of  the  human 
frame,  not  more  wonderful  the  unity  of  the  world,  than 
the  unity  of  this  creation.  Hence,  in  its  study,  adjust- 
ment, relation,  harmony  should  be  looked  for,  as  in  the 
study  of  nature.  As  there,  one  thing  throws  light  upon 
another ;  as  there,  analogy,  proportion,  or  resemblance 
is  the  great  instrument  of  discovery,  whose  power  is 
inexhaustible,  whose  results  are  so  certain,  —  so  it  is  in 
the  Scriptures  :  in  neither  is  mechanical  cohesion ;  in 
each  is  the  unity  of  Life,  and  from  the  same  Life- 
giving  Word. 

As  correspondences  in  nature  are  sought  for  with 
wide  observation  and  the  microscopic  eye,  so  they  should 
be  sought  for  in  Scripture;  and,  as  there  is  no  doubt 
of  their  reality  when  once  they  are  seen  in  nature,  how- 
ever minute  or  far-severed  in  space  or  time,  so  should 
12 


178  INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MATTHEW. 

there  be  higher  conviction,  even,  were  it  possible,  of 
the  reality  of  the  like  in  this  higher  world.  All  Scrip- 
ture, then,  —  especially  that  of  the  Evangelists,  its 
heart,  whence  flows  the  blood,  in  which  is  the  life,  and 
whither  it  reflows,  —  all  Scripture,  and,  most  of  all, 
that  which  reproduces  the  Life  of  the  Lord,  is  ever  to 
be  studied  with  inquiry  into  its  relations  to  all  other 
Scripture. 

Something  of  the  undoubting  faith  in  analogy,  resem- 
blance, harmony,  proportion,  and  law,  that  guides 
science,  has  quickened  the  Church  in  its  researches  in 
the  world  of  Scripture,  as  to  doctrine  ;  but  less  so,  as  to 
that  wonderful  apparatus  of  personal  feelings  and  inci- 
dents, and  of  great  national  events  of  biography  and 
history,  through  which  and  in  which  the  doctrines  are, 
in  a  great  measure,  revealed  and  taught.  The  historical 
element  is  the  chief  element,  so  far  as  form  goes,  in  the 
Scriptures  ;  and  there  should  be  the  same  faith  in  the 
precision  of  its  teaching,  and  the  perfection  of  its  rela- 
tions, that  there  is  in  those  of  purely  didactic  Scripture. 

In  all  Scripture  there  is  a  divine  element  of  certainty  ; 
and,  for  the  full  understanding  of  Scripture,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  compare  one  part  of  it  with  another,  in  a  way 
that  has  no  parallel  in  human  writings.  Hen/ce,  in 
Scripture,  words  and  phrases  may  have  an  exactness,  a 
depth  or  breadth  of  meaning,  and  relations  to  other 
Scripture,  even  beyond  what  they  had  in  the  thoughts 
of  the  writer.  The  meaning  of  the  words  cannot  be 
changed  ;  but  the  conception  of  the  writer  may  receive 
greater   precision,  greater   depth  or  breadth  of  eignifi- 


INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MATTHEW.  179 

cance,  while  it  remains  essentially  the  same ;  as,  in 
science,  a  law  may  have  greater  exactness,  wider  com- 
pass, and  suggest  to  one  mind  more  relations  than  to 
another,  and  yet  be  expressed  in  the  same  words.  The 
language  of  Scripture  is  a  fountain,  not  a  reservoir. 

St.  Matthew  w^rote  his  gospel  with  such  accuracy  as 
his  best  efforts  could  secure  ;  and,  beyond  this,  with  a 
wisdom  that  gave  to  it  perfection,  alike  in  itself,  and  in 
its  relations  to  other  Scripture.  If,  then,  his  language 
has  guided  us  to  conclusions,  the  only  objection  to  which 
seems  to  be  that  they  are  too  exact,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  too  far-reaching,  to  be  gathered  from  what  many 
take  to  be  very  indefinite  words,  these  things  may  be 
referred  to  his  inspiration,  as  well  as  to  his  genius  ;  his 
inspiration  authorizing  the  giving  to  terms  in  his  gospel, 
as  part  of  the  whole  of  Scripture,  a  precision  and  a  rich- 
ness of  meaning  not  to  be  given  to  independent  words. 

Thus,  the  phrases,  the  East  and  the  Far  East,  if 
indefinite  in  themselves,  may  become  definite,  through 
their  use  in  more  ancient  Scripture,  for  Babylonia  and 
Persia.  His  knowledge  of  the  scriptural  relations  of 
what  he  recorded  must  have  been  imperfect.  The  Lord 
himself,  alone,  knoweth  them  all.  No  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  them  can  be  predicated,  even  of  the  Evangelist. 
The  workmanship  was  divine,  the  workman  was  human. 
But  to  overlook  relations  is  not  to  deny  them  j  and,  if 
he  did  not  know  all  the  relations  of  what  he  recorded  of 
the  Wise  Men  to  other  Scripture,  it  does  not  prove  that 
they  did  not  pxist, 

J  would  not  bp  misurjtlerstQocl,  as  if  applying  this  to 


180  INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MATTHEW. 

the  words  before  considered.  I  think  it  is  clear,  beyond 
reasonable  doubt,  that  his  own  insight  into  the  relations 
of  what  he  was  narrating  may  have  guided,  and  did 
guide  him  to  them ;  that  he  chose  a  popular  phrase  — 
"  from  the  Far  East  " —  to  describe  whence  the  Pilgrims 
were,  not  only  because  it  was  such,  but  also  because 
its  use  in  the  Old  Testament  made  it  so  peculiarly  sig- 
nificant in  pointing  out  those  relations,  that  he  would 
have  been  justified  in  this,  had  it  not  been  in  popular 
use  at  all ;  and  also  that  he  added  it  to  the  title  Alagi, 
to  describe  them  beyond  all  mistake,  because,  in  the 
Septuagint,  persons  so  called  had  been  located  in  Baby- 
lonia, that  is,  in  "the  East;"  and  again,  that  there 
were  other  relations  he  did  not  point  out  in  terms,  — 
for  instance,  that  between  the  Oracle  of  Balaam  and  the 
Coming  of  the  Magi,  intimated  in  their  own  words,  — 
because  he  thought  it  needless ;  and  it  should  be  need- 
less. The  history  of  Balaam  is  one  leaf,  the  history 
of  the  Wise  Men  is  another,  from  the  great,  marvel- 
lous book  of  God  alone  —  the  true  history  of  the 
world's  religion,  of  which  so  little  is,  or  can  be,  known 
by  man  ;  and  no  one,  who  has  any  idea  of  the  unity  of 
Scripture,  will  doubt  the  relation  between  these  two 
leaves  of  the  unrevealed  history  of  the  Gentiles, 
transcribed  into  the  revealed  history  of  the  Son  of 
God.  The  Story  of  Balaam  and  of  the  AVise  j\ien  are 
correlative ;  they  illustrate  the  whole  Gentile  religion, 
revealing  that,  everywhere,  the  Spirit  strove  with  men, 
showing  the  triumph  of  grace  resisted  or  obeyed,  and 
the  contrast  of  the  results  of  each  in  the  fates  of  men. 


INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MATTHEW.  181 

Correspondences  like  these  are  so  characteristic  of 
the  Bible,  that  he  who  does  not  understand  something 
of  them,  does  not  understand  the  Bible  at  all.  By 
itself,  each  might  seem  a  thing  of  chance  ;  yet  the  many 
can  have  come  only  from  uniform  design.  Each  may 
be  a  thread  so  fine  as  scarcely  to  be  seen ;  the  many 
form  massive  cords,  holding  the  whole  of  the  sacred 
volume  firmly  together.  Correspondences  like  these, 
in  a  measure,  produce  that  sense  of  unity  often  so 
deeply  felt,  rather  than  clearly  seen,  in  the  Bible.  It  is 
a  unity,  in  a  multitude  of  incidents,  described  by  men 
to  whom  only  a  part  thereof  was  known  ;  unity  in  truths 
hinted  at  by  one,  partially  disclosed  by  another,  revealed 
by  a  third,  or  made  clear  in  the  course  of  events.  It  is 
a  unity  as  to  truths  —  some  deeper  than  the  intuitions 
of  man,  others  beyond  his  experience  ;  a  unity  in  writers 
thousands  of  years  apart,  writing  in  different  countries, 
and  in  different  languages ;  a  unity  that  can  be  ex- 
plained only  by  the  fact  that  God  was  with  them. 

In  the  fact  that  St.  Matthew's  narrative  is  a  divine 
record  of  events  especially  within  a  divine  economy, 
there  is,  also,  an  independent  verification  of  the  conclu- 
sion drawn  from  it  as  history  —  that  the  Pilgrims  to 
Bethlehem  were  Persians.  If  the  term  that  points  this 
out  be  thought  somewhat  indecisive,  it  becomes  decisive 
through  the  consideration,  that  what  the  words  suggest, 
at  least,  as  possible,  is  required  by  the  harmonies  of  the 
kingdom  of  grace ;  inspiration  being  supposed,  in  this, 
as  in  so  many  places,  to  have  guided  the  writer  to  a 
phrase,  that  was  to  become  more  definite  to  the  Church 
|:han  to  him. 


182  INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MATTHEW. 

For  there  is  a  kingdom  of  grace,  having  its  harmonies, 
even  as  the  kins^dom  of  nature  hath.  To  those  who- 
have  no  hearts  to  feel  them,  they  are  as  if  they  were  not. 
Their  notions  as  to  this  kingdom  are  as  blank  as  those 
of  a  blind  man  as  to  the  kingdom  of  Light.  A  man 
without  eyes  might  grope  about,  with  a  tape-measure, 
among  the  houses  in  Jerusalem,  and  his  measurements 
somewhat  avail ;  of  such  value  are  the  researches  of 
men  like  Strauss  in  the  spiritual  Jerusalem.  As  to 
some  things  of  an  unspiritual  kind,  their  fingers  may 
avail  something ;  but  the  soul-inspiring  harmonies  of 
the  kingdom  of  grace,  such  cannot  know.  Can  men, 
born  deaf,  know  the  symphonies  of  Beethoven?  Such 
critics  of  harmonies,  poring  over  the  printed  notes  of 
"  The  Creation,"  and  measuring,  w^ith  scale  and  dividers, 
here  and  there,  on  the  silent  page,  may  detect  typo- 
graphical errors,  make  some  shrewd  and  more  absurd 
remarks  on  the  number,  arrangement,  and  proportion 
of  the  dots,  be  witty  and  wise  over  those  who  see  what 
they  cannot  see,  feel  what  they  cannot  feel,  in  the  mys- 
terious scroll ;  but,  though  the  mighty  master  of  the 
organ  unroll,  in  volumes  of  majestic  sound,  the  music 
expressed  in  those  mystic  characters,  all  is  a  blank  to 
them,  save  what  they  glean  from  the  mute  symbols  of 
a  melody  they  have  no  faculty  to  hear.  Our  knowledge 
is  not  to  be  called  in  question,  because  darkened  souls, 
like  Kenan's,  know  it  not.  A  world  of  sight  and  sound 
is  not  less  sure,  because  such  men  have  no  hearing  and 
no  sight.  The  spiritual  world,  with  its  truths  and  har- 
monies,   is     none     the     less     a    world,    because     they 


INSPIRATION    OF    ST.    MAT'JHEW.  183 

are   dead.      Its    truths    and   harmonies    are    the    only 
realities. 

The  harmonies  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  require 
that  the  witnesses  of  his  grace  to  all  nations  should  have 
come  from  the  nation  that  had  profited  most  by  his 
grace.  The  Lord  honors  those  worthy  of  honor ;  and 
the  honor  of  witnessino^  first  of  the  nations  to  his  Cominof 
on  the  Earth  could  have  been  won  only  by  the  most 
deserving  of  the  nations  of  old.  That  this  was  the  Per- 
sian, is  known  from  Scripture.  With  this,  all  else  that 
is  known  of  them  accords.  Viewinof  it  in  the  lio^ht  of 
human  passions,  their  preeminence  might  be  denied  : 
it  might  be  said,  the  state  of  the  Great  King  was 
less  than  that  of  Augustus  ;  the  glory  of  Cyrus  is  pale 
before  that  of  Alexander  ;  the  philosophy  of  the  Greeks 
outvies  that  of  the  Magi ;  the  beauty  of  Grecian  art 
makes  comparison  with  it  idle.  But  the  worth  of  a 
people  is  not  to  be  determined  by  splendor  of  palaces, 
though  the  earth  has  known  of  regal  state  nothing  more 
sublime  than  the  court  of  the  Great  King ;  nor  by 
armies,  though  the  Persian  swept  "from  India  to  Ethio- 
pia." It  is  the  religious  element  in  the  national  char- 
acter, whose  presence  in  one  people,  more  than  in  an- 
other, makes  that  people  more  in  favor  with  God,  and 
should  make  them  higher  in  honor  wdth  man.  The 
Athenians  worshipped  the  cunning  work  of  the  mortal 
hand  of  Phidias  ;  the  Romans,  a  deified  Emperor;  Per- 
sia, the  God  of  Heaven  ;  and  the  God  of  Heaven  ap- 
pointed the  Persian,  who  built  no  altars  to  the  starry 
hosts,  no  temple  to  gods  of  gold  or  stone,  to  build  for 


184  INSPIRATION    OF   ST.    MATTHEW. 

Him  his  own  house  in  Jerusalem.  When,  therefore, 
his  Evangelist  describes  the  Witnesses  of  the  Nations  to 
the  Advent  of  the  Lord  of  the  Nations  by  a  term  that 
is  the  distinctive  title  of  the  Sacred  Order  of  the  Per- 
sians, though  sometimes  used  in  another  sense,  it  is  not 
to  be  doubted  that  the  Pilgrims,  thus  divinely  described, 
vs^ere  Persians,  since,  thus,  there  is  found,  in  their  Wit- 
ness to  the  Lord,  the  perfection  belonging  to  the  har- 
monies of  the  Kingdom  of  Grace. 

The  fact,  that  the  Persians  rejected  Christ,  might 
lead  us  to  doubt  whether  the  Wise  Men  were  Persians, 
were  it  not  for  the  more  strange  and  mournful  fact,  that 
the  most  faithful  and  the  most  favored  of  the  nations, 
the  chosen  and  peculiar  people,  rejected  the  Master,  in 
Person.  Each  has  been  severely  punished.  But  the 
finger  of  the  Lord  traced  for  the  Persians  the  bounds  of 
their  habitation.  He  has  preserved  their  race ;  and,  in 
spite  of  long  centuries  of  demoralization,  they  are,  to- 
day, the  finest  people  of  Asia. 

Of  the  Shemitic  ftimily  of  nations,  only  the  Hebrews 
of  old,  of  the  Aryan  family,  only  the  Persian,  can  be 
said  to  have  kept  the  faith.  The  Persians  restored  the 
Hebrews  to  their  own  country ;  and,  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  Hebrew  Apostles,  going  out  from  thence,  taught 
the  truth  anew  to  the  Aryan  nations,  who  then  received 
again  the  priceless  inheritance  they  had  wasted  in  riotous 
living,  and  more  than  they  had  before.  The  Jew  and 
the  Persian  —  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take 
heed  lest  he  fall  —  rejected  the  Word  made  flesh,  who 
is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory,  and  the  express 


INSPIRATION   OF   ST.    MATTHEW.  185 

image  of  liis  Person  ;  yet  the  Jew  and  the  Persian  abide 
the  time,  when  the  nations  that  are  now,  in  their  stead, 
the  worshippers  of  God,  —  for  no  man  cometh  to  the 
Father  but  by  the  Son,  —  shall  return  to  them  all  they 
received  from  them,  and  more.  The  set  time  cometh 
when  the  great  cycle  of  the  mercy  of  God  to  these 
nations  will  be  rounded  into  its  predicted  fulness  of 
completion.  The  set  time  cometh  when  Jerusalem  shall 
no  longer  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  and  when 
the  Persians  will  follow  their  Wise  Men  of  old. 


186  SU3IMARY. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

SUMMARY. 

This  explanation  of  the  Pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem 
has,  here  and  there,  something  of  the  manner  of  a 
defence  of  the  evangelical  narrative.  It  has  been  con- 
strained to  this  by  the  tone  of  faith  within  the  Church, 
lowered  by  the  too  prevailing  unbelief  of  the  world  — 
the  reflex  of  an  effect  on  the  world  produced  by  some 
lack  of  fulness  of  faith  within  the  Church  itself,  as  cold- 
ness in  the  extremities  of  the  body  is  caused  by  feeble 
pulsations  of  the  heart,  and  then  this  coldness  reacts 
on  the  heart. 

With  some,  the  guarded  movement  of  such  argument 
may  chill  the  glow  of  feeling ;  with  some,  the  first 
knowledge  of  a  doubt  may  be  given  in  the  answer  to  it : 
yet  something  of  this  manner  seems  to  be  required  by 
the  peculiarities  of  an  age  whose  spirit  summons  before 
it  all  times,  all  institutions,  all  theories  of  morals,  of 
society,  of  government,  of  art  —  all  science  and  all 
creeds  ;  and,  with  somewhat  of  keener  intuition  and  a 
larger  experience  than  former  ages,  would  weigh  all 
that  has  been,  and  is,  and  is  to  be,  in  its  scanty  and  ill- 
adjusted  balance.  To  call  it  an  age  of  unbelief  is  rather 
extreme  ;  but  it  is  not  an  age  of  faith,  though  abounding 


SUMMARY.  187 

in  credulity.  It  is  an  age  of  inquiry,  ^Yhen  "  many  run 
to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  is  increased." 

In  the  presence  of  its  restless  propensity  to  search 
into  everything,  the  Church,  for  her  own  sake,  and  for 
that  of  the  world,  may  well  mark  the  deep  foundations 
of  her  walls,  and  tell  her  battlements  ;  she  may  well 
survey,  in  accordance  with  the  canons  of  modern  his- 
torical criticism,  as  by  her  adapted  to  her  own  fields 
her  treasures  of  history  ;  she  may  well  strive  to  commend 
her  sacred  records,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  to  her  own 
critical  reason  ;  with  greater  zeal  than  ever  before,  may 
well  endeavor  to  clear  up  the  obscure,  to  harmonize 
seeming  contradictions,  and  to  confirm  the  truth  of  the 
Scriptures,  in  ways  that  the  spiritual  wants  of  other 
times  did  not  so  urgently  require. 

It  is  well  the  infidel  should  see  that  the  faith  of  the 
Church  is  as  intelligent  as  it  is  to  him  mysterious.  To 
let  him  see  less  than  this,  is  to  give  him  over  to  unbe- 
lief. But  the  heart  determines  the  intellect.  Truth 
not  felt  by  the  heart  cannot  be  known  as  truth  by  the 
mind.  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  most,  then,  that  can  be  done, 
is  to  strengthen  in  the  Church  her  own  perceptions  of 
her  own  truths,  that  from  her  there  may  be  more  and 
more  breathed  into  the  world  a  feeling,  that  there  is  a 
known  world  above  its  knowing ;  that  even  as  one  born 
blind  longs  to  seethe  blue  heavens  on  high,  and  the  firm 
earth,  he  is  convinced  are,  but  beholds  not,  so  man  may 
yearn  for  a  heart  that  may  see  God. 

Historical  evidence  cannot  exorcise  the  demon  of  un- 


188  SUMMARY. 

belief.  Historical  evidence  addresses  the  mind :  he 
lodges  in  the  heart,  whose  subtle  influences  sway  the 
intellect.  But  the  Christian  may  have  less  or  more  of 
his  own  light,  perceptions  less  or  more  clear,  truths  less 
or  more  perceived  in  their  harmonies ;  and  in  proportion 
as  his  own  knowledge  of  his  own  realm  of  knowledge  is 
increased,  his  soul  will  have  more  of  strength ;  the 
world  will,  more  and  more,  be  constrained  to  feel  the 
inferiority  of  her  knowledge ;  and  thus  the  Church  will, 
at  length,  regain  in  herself,  and  establish  in  the  world, 
the  full  conviction  of  her  intellectual  supremacy. 

The  argument,  then,  in  this  inquiry,  is  addressed  to 
Christians.  If  it  quicken  their  faith,  it  will,  at  length, 
through  them,  reach  the  unbeliever,  so  far  as  he  has  the 
capacity  to  be  reached  by  it.  As  free  citizens,  then,  of 
the  City  of  God,  with  the  ideas  and  prepossessions  be- 
longing to  such,  knowing  that  the  thoughts  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  run  through  the  Ages,  and  that  slight 
indications  in  Scripture  point  to  His  far-continuing 
purposes  and  distant  but  foreseen  ends,  let  us  recall  the 
argument  that  has  passed  before  us.  First :  It  has 
been  seen  that  the  Magi  believed  that  the  God  of  Heaven 
intervened  in  the  affiiirs  of  men,  and  that  Ormazd,  in 
his  appointed  times,  would  send  on  earth  prophets,  who 
would  work  wonders  for  the  Kingdom  of  Light,  and  the 
last  and  greatest  of  whom  would  utterly  destroy  the 
Kino:dom  of  Darkness.  Second  :  That  there  was  with 
the  Magi  a  Hebrew  prophet,  who  foreknew  the  Coming 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  Time  thereof,  having  power  and 
opportunity  to  impress  these  facts  on   them  ;   and  who 


SUMMARY.  189 

could  point,  in  confirmation  of  what  he  revealed,  to  an 
oracle  not  from  Hebrew  lips,  in  which  it  was  foretold 
that  a  Star  would  be  the  Sign  of  His  appearing. 
Third :  That  there  were  data  from  which  the  Magi 
might  have  computed  the  time  of  this  prediction,  and, 
consequently,  of  the  starry  omen ;  that  this  j)i'opbecy 
and  calculation  might  have  been  preserved  in  writing  by 
them,  and  were  not  likely  to  have  been  lost  in  an  order 
professionally  conservative  of  sacred  records,  traditions, 
and  mystic  lore ;  and  that  the  expectation  of  some  spir- 
itual Ruler  to  be  born  in  the  house  of  Jacob,  thus 
enkindled  among  the  Magi,  might  have  been  kept  from 
dying  out,  by  the  presence  of  Hebrews  in  Persia. 
Fourth  :  That  certain  of  the  Magi  were  dwelling  or 
sojourning  in  the  country  between  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates,  at  a  time  when  the  expectation  was  deeply 
inwrouo^ht  into  the  minds  of  some  of  the  multitude  of 
Hebrew^s  living  in  that  region,  that  the  appointed  hour 
of  the  Birth  of  their  Messiah  in  Judea  was  nigh  ;  and 
that,  about  that  time,  there  were  displayed,  in  the 
heavens,  signs  in  the  planets,  believed  by  these  Magi, 
as  astrologers,  to  portend  that  some  great  event  had 
come,  or  was  about  to  come  to  pass  in  Judea — signs 
awakening  them  to  diligent  watch  for  the  predicted  Star. 
Fifth  :  That  these  Magi  journeyed  from  Babylonia  on  a 
Pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  and  proclaimed  in  that  City, 
in  the  very  terms  of  the  Hebrew  Prophet,  and  with  a 
clear  reference  to  the  ancient,  extra- Judean  oracle,  that 
they  had  seen  the  Star  of  the  King  of  the  Jews.  Thus 
what  St.  Matthew  records  is,  to  this  extent,  explained, 


190  SUxMMAllY. 

and  so  confirmed.  The  Pilgrimage  itself  makes  it 
probable  that  certain  other  events  took  place  ;  and  these 
probable  events,  taken  together  with  other  known  events, 
explain  the  Pilgrimage.  It  thus  ceases  to  be  an  isolated 
thing,  pressing  on  belief  with  the  heavy  weight  of  any- 
thing, however  well  attested,  that  cannot  be  connected 
to  aught  previous  as  its  intelligible  reason,  and  so 
seeming  an  eiFect  without  a  cause ;  and  it  is,  at  once, 
placed  in  a  line  with  other  facts  ;  for  all  history  is  a 
chain  of  recorded  and  inferred  events.  From  facts  that, 
appearing  of  record,  are  supposed  to  be  known,  other 
facts,  not  of  record,  are  inferred ;  and  this  must  be  ac- 
cepted as  history,  or  there  can  be  no  history.  A  prob- 
ability that  things  were  so  is  all  that  can  be  attained 
to,  as  to  the  greater  part  of  human  affairs  ;  and  this  of 
things  in  the  immediate  present,  as  well  as  in  the  remote 
past.  Such  a  reasonable  probability  is  all  that  can  be 
attained  to  as  to  the  course  of  events  preceding  the  out- 
shining of  the  Star,  that,  in  connection  with  it,  led  the 
Magi  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  this  is  all  that  the  wants  of 
Faith  require.  For  it  is  enough  to  say  to  those  who 
assume  that  there  can  be  no  explanation  of  such  a  Pil- 
grimage, it  might  have  been  in  this  way  ;  while  it  is 
freely  and  gladly  admitted,  that  this  touching  lesson  of 
the  condescending  mercy  of  God,  this  high  example 
of  faith  in  man,  must  forever  depend  on  the  sole  and 
sufficient  witness  of  one,  who  was  not  only  a  truthful 
historian,  but  also  a  divinely-inspired  Evangelist. 

Thus  far,  purely  historical  or  scientific  confirmations 
of  it  have  been  marked  in  this  review  of  trains  of  events 


SUM^IARY.  191 

that  seem  related  to  the  Pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  ;  but, 
to  the  Christian  mind,  there  is  evidence  for  it  of  a  some- 
what different  kind.  The  Christian  Church,  like  the 
Hebrews  of  old,  has  ever  held  that  Balaam  prophesied 
of  the  Messiah.  "There  shall  come  a  Star  out  of  Jacob 
and  a  Sceptre  shall  rise  out  of  Israel,"^  —  according  to 
the  ideas  of  him  who  spake,  and  those  who  heard  it  — 
foretold  a  King,  of  whom  a  Star  in  heaven  would  be  the 
sign  ;  and,  as  this  was  the  only  way  in  which  this  oracle 
could  be  understood  by  them,  it  is  the  only  way  in 
which  it  should  be  interpreted ;  and  it  was  thus  inter- 
preted by  the  Jews.  The  attestation  is  correspondent 
with  the  prediction.  Both  alike  —  prophecy  and  wit- 
ness —  are  from  out  the  Gentile  world.  Each  is  a 
testimony  to  the  Lord  of  the  nations  from  without  the 
elect  nation ;  and  this  correspondence  is  the  more  com- 
plete, as  each  testimony  comes  from  those  whom  the 
world  believed  to  have  mystic  power  to  read  in  the 
book  of  God's  secrecy. 

The  prophecy  was  uttered  to  kings,  militant  against 
the  people  of  God,  in  their  pride  of  place  and  power, 
as,  in  arms,  they  stood  to  bar  the  way  of  Israel  into 
the  Land  of  Promise  and  of  rest.  Its  fulfilment  was 
uttered  to  Herod,  the  friend  of  Caesar,  and  so  to  powers 
of  the  world,  in  whose  hearts  was  the  intent  to  bar  the 
way  of  the  Lord  to  his  rightful  kingdom  over  all  the 
earth. 

It  is  most  reasonable  to  suppose,  that,  if  a  Star  was 

^  Numbers  xxiv.  1 7. 


192  SUMMARY. 

foretold,  its  appearing  would  be  told  to  Jerusalem,  and 
to  all  the  world ;  that  when  the  sign  was  visible  to  hu- 
man eyes,  there  would  be  something  providential  that 
would  call  to  it  the  attention  of  the  Jews,  and  ever 
afterward  fasten  upon  it  the  thought  and  the  memory 
of  man.  This  —  wanting  which  the  annals  of  our  Faith 
had  seemed  manifestly  imperfect  —  the  narrative  in  St. 
Matthew  supplies  ;  and  it  agrees  with  what  the  harmo- 
nies of  a  plan  predetermined,  from  the  first,  in  the 
thought  of  God,  would  seem  to  human  intellects  to  re- 
quire, — judging,  as  such  can  only  wisely  judge,  of  the 
thoughts  of  God  after  the  event ;  for  though  to  fore- 
know the  ways  of  God  is  given  only  to  inspired  souls, 
yet  to  see  the  fitness  of  beauty  in  His  work,  once  visibly 
wrought  out,  whether  in  nature,  or,  more  marvellous 
still,  in  the  realm  of  life,  is  the  appropriate  office  of 
the  God-given  intellect  of  man. 

Again :  in  these  few  strangers  in  Bethlehem,  the 
Church  sees  the  prophetic  types  and  prophecy  of  the 
many,  who,  after  them,  were  to  come  from  every 
nation  under  heaven  ;  and,  thus  viewed,  their  presence 
is  a  sign,  that,  disclosing  its  significance  afterwards, 
authenticates  that  presence,  by  proving  there  was  in  it 
something  divine.  What  is  written  of  these  strangers 
at  the  cradle  of  the  Lord  is  a  parable  of  prophetic  mean- 
ing, reaching  far  onward,  and  reciting  the  future  of 
His  kingdom.  Events  in  the  lives  of  men  are  often 
ordered  with  a  dramatic  propriety,  that  reveals  to  the 
believing  spirit  the  intervention  of  higher  powers  in  the 
concerns  of  mortals  ;  and  if  ever  this   is  manifest,  we 


SIBIMARY.  193 

may  well  believe  it  was  so  in  that  Life  for  whose  mani- 
festation the  Life  of  man  was  made.  The  illumined 
sages  of  the  dark  heathen  world  seek  the  shrine  of  truth, 
and  the  place  where  the  Lord  was  to  be  born,  pointed 
out  to  them  by  its  priests,  but,  without  their  further 
aid,  come  to  the  cradle  of  the  Messiah.  No  long  pro- 
cession of  priests,  no  Sanhedrim,  marshals  these  Pil- 
grims to  the  shrine.  Mysterious  picture  of  what  is  to 
be  —  the  Jews  not  there,  yet  there  the  Representatives 
of  the  Nations  of  the  Earth  ! 

Again  :  in  the  strangers  who  came  and  worshipped 
the  Infant  Lord,  the  Church,  in  virtue  of  that  vision 
which  belongs  to  her  because  she  is  the  Church,  recog- 
nizes the  Witnesses  of  the  Grace  of  the  Universal  Lord 
to  all  nations  —  the  Representatives  of  the  Wise  and 
Good  of  the  World.  Thus  viewing  them,  the  main  fact 
in  their  history  autlienticates  itself.  The  Reason  de- 
mands  it ;  the  soul  is  evidence  for  it :  for  if,  as  many 
insist,  —  perchance  seeking  thus  to  convict  the  Scrip- 
ture of  narrowness  and  partiality,  —  the  Universal  Lord, 
pitying  all  nations,  denied  grace  to  none.  He  must  have 
determined  the  course  of  nations,  other  than  the  He- 
brew, with  reference  to  His  Coming ;  and  all  reason 
calls  aloud  for  some  recognition  of  this  by  those  nations  ; 
for  the  soul  of  man  catches  something  of  the  thought 
of  God,  awakens  to  some  foresight  of  what  He  is  bring- 
ing to  pass  in  the  earth,  when  events  of  a  world-wide 
concern,  ordered  from  afar,  converge  to  His  aim,  and 
His  preparation  points  to  His  intent.  Thus,  in  the 
sacred  Eclogue  of  Virgil,  that  illustrates  the  affinity 
13 


194  SUMMARY. 

of  prophet  and  bard,  the  glowing  presentiment  of  an 
auspicious  dominion  awoke.  Thus  it  was,  that,  near 
the  Christian  era,  old  Hebrew  prophecy,  foretelling  that 
dominion,  so  began  to  harmonize  with  the  presentience 
of  man,  that  it  was  commonly  talked  of  through  all  the 
East.  But  since  *^the  end  and  aim  of  all  human  his- 
tory was  to  prepare  the  way  for  Christ's  appearing," 
the  Reason,  unsatisfied  even  with  these  intimations  of  a 
prescience  in  man  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  demands 
from  out  the  heart  of  the  expectant  world  a  more 
marked  recognition  of  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  ;  expects 
of  his  providence  something,  in  the  Israel  outside  of 
Israel,  more  distinctly  corresponding  to  the  revelation 
made  to  Simeon,  that  he  should  not  see  death  before 
he  had  seen  the  Lord's  Christ,  and  to  the  shepherds, 
to  whom  the  angel  told,  "unto  you  is  born  this  day  a 
Saviour,  which  is  Christ  the  Lord."  By  its  answer  to 
these  requirements,  the  Story  of  the  Wise  Men  lays 
strong  hold  on  the  reason  of  the  Church :  it  lays  strong 
hold,  too,  on  the  heart  of  the  Church ;  for  in  the  Com- 
inof  of  the  Wise  Men  she  finds  the  assurance  of  her 
earnest,  pleasing  hope  —  that  all  who  sought  for  Him 
were  guided  of  the  Lord.  In  them,  her  oft-Yecurring 
question,  as  she  muses  on  the  Grace  of  other  days, — 
How  near  to  the  Lord  did  the  nearest  to  Plim  of  the 
heathen  come? — is  answered,  when  the  Representatives 
of  the  Wise  and  Good  of  the  world  "  saw  the  Young 
Child." 

As  nothing  comes  by  chance  in  the  kingdom  of  Na- 
ture, so  nothing  comes   by  chance   in  the  kingdom   of 


SU3D1ARY.  195 

Grace.  As  the  West  did  not  keep  the  tradition  of  a 
Saviour  to  come  so  well  as  did  the  East,  it  is  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  law  uttered  by  the  Messiah, — "to 
him  that  hath  shall  be  given," —  that  Magi  from  the 
Far  East  were  the  first-fruits  of  the  heathen. 

Thus  the  Law,  under  which  Truth  is  revealed  and 
Grace  is  given,  thus  the  presentiments  of  the  soul, 
harmonize  with  the  statement  of  St.  Matthew  —  that, 
from  the  people  who  Lad  most  faithfully  kept  the  Truth 
revealed  to  the  Fathers  of  mankind,  from  an  order  of 
Sages  over  whom  Daniel  presided,  from  that  country 
where  Esther  reigned  a  Queen,  came  the  Witnesses  of 
the  Nations  to  the  cradle  of  the  Lord. 


APPENDIX. 

I.     THE   EAST   AND   THE   FAR  EAST. 
II.     RELATION   OF    THE    I'ERSIAN  AND   THE   HEBREW 
RELIGIONS. 

197 


/ 


APPENDIX. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

In  Chapter  II.,  the  meaning  of  these  terms,  as  used 
by  St.  Matthew,  is  determined  by  geographical  and 
historical  considerations.  As  that  Chapter,  in  its  pres- 
ent form,  sufficiently  accomplishes  its  immediate  pur- 
pose, and  the  longer  consideration  of  its  subject  there, 
would  break  in  too  much  on  the  unity  of  the  book,  I 
have  transferred  to  this  place  an  important  part  of  it, 
as  originally  written.  It  points  out  a  relation  be- 
tween the  two  Greek  terms  used  by  St.  Matthew  and 
two  corresponding  words  in  the  Hebrew,  that  justi- 
fies the  explanation  of  his  use  of  the  former,  so  far  as 
it  depends  upon  antecedent  Hebraic  usage  ;  and  it  an- 
swers objections  that  may  be  brought  against  the  posi- 
tions taken  in  that  Chapter. 

In  descriptive  terms  the  Hebrew  language  was  very 
rich.^  It  had  five  names  for  the  West,  and  seven  for 
the    South.     For    the    East    it    had    two,  Kedem  and 

^  "  No  less  than  four  different  Hebrew  words  are  ren- 
dered in  English  by  the  term  valley."  —  Robinson's  Physical 
Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  Sec.  II.  p.  70. 

199 


200        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

MiZRACH.     Mizrach  meant  the  rising,  i.  e.,  of  the  son.^ 
Kedem  meant  before. 

It  was  indiiFerent  whether  Kedem  or  Mizrach  was 
used,  when  direction  merely  was  meant.  In  other 
cases,  there  was  a  difference  in  their  expression  of  their 
common  idea.  The  more  poetical  and  imaginative 
Mizrach  had  the  wider  meaning.  Each  carried  the 
eye  in  an  easterly  direction ;  but  Mizrach  farther  than 
Kedem  ;  as  in  these  sentences,  where  they  are  used  to- 
gether :  "on  the  east  side  eastwards,"^  "eastwards  to- 
wards the  sun-rising."  Mizrach  is  used  when  the  East 
is  the  antithesis  of  the  West,  as  in  this  line,  "  as  far 
as  the  East  is  from  the  West  ;"^  or  of  any  other  quar- 
ter of  the  globe ;  or  where  it  is  intended  to  make  the 
impression  of  distance  strong.*  But  when  the  four  quar- 
ters of  the  globe  are  designated,  Kedem,  the  more  def- 
inite of  the  two  words,  is  used;  as  in  this  sentence: 
"Thou  shalt  spread  abroad  to  the  West  and  to  the  East, 
and  to  the  North  and  to  the  South."  ^ 

^  This  is  sometimes  joined  with  it.  —  Deut.  iv.  41.  47; 
Jud.  xi.   18  ;    Is.  xli.  25. 

^  Ex.  xxvii.  13  ;  Josh.  xix.  12. 

^  Ps.  ciii.  12  ;   Ps.  1. 1. ;  cxiii.  3  ;  Josh.  xi.  3  ;  Zach.  viii.  7. 

^  Dan.  viii.  9;  xi.  44;  Amos  viii.  12;  Ps.  cvii.  3;  Is. 
xliii.  5. 

^  Gen.  xxviii.  14,  and  in  Gen.  xiii.  14  ;  Job  xxiii.  8,  9  ; 
Ezek.  xlvii.  17,  18,  19,  20.  See,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of 
the  !BIble,  the  admirable  Article  on  the  East,  whose  value  is 
out  of  all  proportion  to  its  brevity,  by  W.  L.  Bevau,  the  first 
to  note  the  distinction  between  the  two  forms  of  Anatole  in 
Matthew  ii.,  and  their  relations  to  the  two  Hebrew  Avords 
Mizrach  and  Kedem. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.        201 

Each  has,  at  times,  a  geographical  sense ;  Mizrach 
rarely,  Kedem  frequently.  This  sense  corresponds  to 
their  respective  compass.  Thus,  Mizrach,  used  with  a 
geographical  significance,  twice  denotes  Persia  ;  ^  while 
Kedem  never  crosses  the  eastern  line  of  the  Plain  of 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris.  Usually  the  geograph- 
ical sense  of  Mizrach  was  not  definite  in  itself,  but  from 
the  context.  Kedem,  as  has  been  shown  in  Chapter 
II.,  though  its  application  differed  in  diflPerent  ages,  was 
used  as  a  geographical  name,  whose  well-established  and 
well-defined  meaning  was  clear  and  sure  in  itself. 

After  the  Captivity,  the  Jews  of  Palestine  spoke  as 
their  native  tongue  a  local  dialect  of  that  wide-spread 
Shemitic  language  known  as  the  Syro-Chaldaic,  or  the 
Aramean, — a  language  closely  allied  to  the  Hebrew. 
At  the  Christian  era,  they  also  spoke  an  Oriental  and 
Hebraized  dialect  of  the  Greek  language.  The  correct- 
ness of  these  two  propositions  is  here  assumed  without 
argument,  save  the  remark  that  there  is  evidence  of  the 
latter  in  the  following  narrative,  taken  from  the  twenty- 
first  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  :  — 

"The  Jews  which  were  of  Asia,  when  they  saw  Paul 
in  the  Temple,  stirred  up  all  the  people,  and  laid 
hands  on  him,  crying  out,  Men  of  Israel,  help.  This 
is  the  man  that  teacheth  all  men  everywhere  against  the 
people,  and  the  law,  and  this  place.  .  .  .  And  all  the 
city  was  moved  ^  and  the  people  ran  together :  and 
they  took  Paul,  and  drew  him  out  of  the  Temple.  And 
forthwith  the  doors  were  shut.     And  as  they  went  about 

1  Isa.  xli.  2:  xlvi.  11. 


202  THE    EAST    AND    THE    FAR    EAST. 

to  kill  him,  tidings  came  unto  the  cliief  captain  of  the 
band,  that  all  Jerusalem  was  in  an  uproar.  Who  im- 
mediately took  soldiers  and  centurions,  and  ran  down 
unto  them  ;  and  when  they  saw  the  chief  captain  and 
the  soldiers,  they  left  beating  of  Paul.  Then  the  chief 
captain  came  near,  and  took  him,  and  commanded  him 
to  be  bound  with  two  chains,  and  demanded  who  he 
was,  and  what  he  had  done.  And  some  cried  one 
thing,  some  another  among  the  multitude;  and  when 
he  could  not  know  the  certainty  for  the  tumult,  he  com- 
manded him  to  be  carried  into  the  castle.  And  when 
he  came  upon  the  stairs,  so  it  was,  that  he  was  borne 
of  the  soldiers  for  the  violence  of  the  people.  For  the 
rnultitude  of  the  people  followed  after,  crying,  away 
with  him." 

In  this  graphic  picture,  it  is  seen  that  the  whole  city 
was  drawn  together,  and  not  merely  the  Greek-speaking 
Jews  of  Asia,  who  at  the  first  ^^  stirred  up  all  the 
people.''^  Paul  then  besought  of  the  captain  of  the 
guard  that  he  might  speak  to  them.  "And  when  he 
had  given  him  license,  Paul  stood  on  the  stairs  and 
beckoned  with  the  hand  unto  the  people.  And  when 
there  was  made  a  great  silence,  he  spake  unto  them  in 
the  Hebrew  tongue,  saying,  Men,  brethren,  and  fathers, 
hear  ye  my  defence  which  I  make  now  unto  you." 

This  note  of  the  lano^uao^e  that  he  chose  to  use  makes 
it  sure  that  he  had  the  choice  of  another  language,  which 
the  people  would  have  understood,  and  were  accustomed 
to  hear.  It  is  clear  that  this  is  so,  even  without  the 
remark  which  St.  Luke  interposes  between  these  words 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.        203 

and  the  speech  that  followed,  — "and  when  they  heard 
that  he  spoke  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  to  them,  they  kept 
the  more  silence."  St.  Paul  here  showed  the  same 
address  as  when  he  spake  on  Mars'  Hill  to  the  men  of 
Athens ;  and  somewhat  conciliated  the  people  because 
he  appealed  to  their  national  feelings  by  speaking  to 
them  in  their  native  tongue,  and  not  in  the  Greek, 
which  he  might  have  used. 

As  these  two  languages  had  then  for  a  long  time 
been  in  common  use  among  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  their 
flexible  Greek  dialect  must  have  been  somewhat  modi- 
fied by  their  more  rigid  native  dialect ;  and  there  is 
this  direct  evidence  that  the  word  Anatole  did  undergo 
some  change  of  form  in  the  local  Greek  of  Palestine.  In 
classical  Greek,  as  used  for  the  East,  it  is  in  the  plural, 
and  without  the  article,  but  in  the  Greek  of  Josephus 
it  is  to  be  found  in  the  singular  and  with  the  article.^ 
This  fact  will  hereafter  serve  another  important  pur- 
pose ;  here,  it  is  used  only  as  proof  that  Anatole  was 
somewhat  altered,  as  to  its  form,  in  Palestinian  Greek. 
For  Josephus  prided  himself  on  his  Greek,  and  so  it  is 
clear  that  in  his  departures,  as  to  this  word,  from  clas- 
sical usage,  he  unwittingly  followed  the  usage  of  the 

^  Antiq.  I.  i.  3.  nqbg  jr^v  dcvazoXr^v  God  planted  a  Paradise  in 
the  East.  De  Bell.  Jud.  H.  x.  2  ;  III.  iii.  3  ;  V.  iv.  2., 
xii.  2.  In  these  places  it  does  not  have  the  article.  He 
uses  it  in  the  singular  with  the  article.  Antiq.  VIII.  iii.  2, 
6  ;  nod;  irjv  dvccjoXtjv,  Proem  De  Bell.  Jud.  II.  xvi.  4  ;  lY. 
X.  V  ;  yi.  vi.  1.  He  also  used  it  in  the  plural,  both  without 
the  article  and  wiih  it.     Antiq.  V,  i,  22  ;  VIII.  v.  3. 


204        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAK  EAST. 

Greek  he  was  accustomed  to  speak  as  a  Jew  of  Pal- 
estine. 

It  is  so  natural,  that  it  may  almost,  or  quite,  be  taken 
for  certain,  that  the  native  dialect  of  the  Hebrews  con- 
formed to  itself  some  of  the  more  common  descriptive 
terms  in  the  flexible  Greek  dialect,  when  each  had  been 
spoken  for  some  considerable  time  by  that  people ;  and 
it  is  so  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Hebrew  terms 
Mizrach  and  Kedcm  thus  came  to  have  equivalents  in 
Palestinian  colloquial  Greek,  that  a  very  little  direct 
evidence  w^ould  establish  it  as  a  fact.^  The  usas^e  of 
St.  Matthew  is  such  evidence.  For  this  theory  clearly 
and  satisfactorily  explains  his  usage,  and  the  meanings 
given  to  his  terms,  in  conformity  with  it,  are  upheld  by 
such  a  variety  of  historical  and  geographical  facts,  and 
by  such  general  considerations,  all  harmonizing  in  one 
result,  that  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  thus  his 
terms  are  correctly  interpreted. 

It  is  true  that  no  trace  of  his  usage  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Septuagint.  But  should  it  be  looked  for  there? 
The  scholars,  who  made  this  translation  of  the  Hebrew 

^  As  to  the  presence  in  the  Aramean  language,  as  spoken 
by  the  Jews  in  Palestine,  of  terms  substantially  like  those  of 
the  Hebrew,  —  which  is  all  that  the  argument  requires,  —  it 
may  be  said,  both  were  such  terms  that  this  could  hardly 
have  been  otherwise  ;  and  Kedem  as  a  proper  name  would 
certainly  keep  some  place  when  the  kindred  Aramean  was 
substituted  for  the  Hebrew.  The  Hebrew  was  a  cultivated 
dialect  of  the  Aramean,  the  original  language.  Now,  Miz- 
rach and  Kedem  are  found  in  the  very  oldest  Hebrew,  in 
the  familiar  converse  of  the  Patriarchs. 


THE    EAST    AND   THE    FAR    EAST.  205 

Bible,  conformed  its  Greek,  so  far  so  they  well  could, 
to  classical  usage.  They  do  not  attempt  to  give  exact 
equivalents  for  Mizrach  and  Kedem.  They  do  not  try 
to  discriminate  between  them.  They  render  both  by 
the  plural  of  Aiiatole  without  the  article.  Their  trans- 
lation was  made  long  before  the  time  of  St.  Matthew's 
Gospel.  It  was  made  outside  of  Palestine  ;  and  it  is 
not  probable  that  the  Greek  spoken  by  the  LXX.  was 
much,  if  any,  modified  by  a  Hebrew  dialect  spoken  at  the 
same  time  with  it ;  ^  while  the  explanation  of  the  two 
forms  of  Anatole  in  St.  Matthew  is  based  upon  the 
facts  that  for  a  long  time  two  dialects  had  been  spoken 
by  the  Jew^s  in  Palestine,  and  that  his  usage  was  local 
and  colloquial. 

It  may  be  inquired,  whether  the  true  answer  to  the 
earnestly-debated  question,  Did  St.  Matthew  write 
his  Gospel  in  Aramean  or  in  Greek  ?  together  with  that 
of  the  questions  connected  with  it,  would  confirm  or 
invalidate  the  opinion  here  maintained  ?  However  that 
problem  may  be  settled,  its  decision  would  not  affect  it 
much,  if  at  all.  That  question  has  usually  been  dis- 
cussed as  if  the  supposition  must  be,  that  he  wrote  it 
only  in  one  language.  But  he  may  have  composed  his 
Gospel  in  one  of  the  two  dialects  which  he  spake,  and 
then  have  turned  it  into  the  other ;  have  first  w^ritten 
it  in  his  native  tongue,  and  then  have  re-written  it  in 

^  It  is  worthy  of  note  in  this  connection,  that  Philo- 
Judseus,  one  of  the  most  learned  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews, 
of  the  first  century,  seems  to  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
Hebrew  lan^ua^e. 


206  THE    EAST    AND    THE    FAR   EAST. 

that  Greek  with  which  he  and  his  countrymen  were  so 
fiimiliar.  This  he  could  easily  and  quickly  have  done, 
as  the  manuscript  is  so  brief;  and  it  would  seem  that  he 
could  hardly  have  done  otherwise.  By  this  natural  and 
probable  supposition  various  difficulties  may  be  easily 
solved,  and  all  the  facts  in  the  case  readily  harmonized 
into  a  consistent  whole.  If  he  did  so,  how  very  natural 
it  would  be  for  him  to  give  the  equivalents  in  the  Greek 
dialect  for  the  two  words  in  his  native  tongue  ;  and  he 
would  do  this  if  he  composed  his  Gospel  in  the  Greek 
only. 

Against  the  whole  argument  in  Chapter  II.  — of  which 
this  Appendix  is  to  be  taken  as  a  part  —  to  prove  that 
in  St.  Matthew-,  tj/  fn'a-ioh,^  the  East,  means  Babylonia, 
and  di'ttToAwr,  the  Far  East,  means  Persia,  there  are 
some  facts  that  might  be  alleged. 

1.  No  parallel  usage  is  to  be  found  in  the  whole 
compass  of  the  Hebraic-Greek  literature  from  the  time 
of  the  close  of  the  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament  to  that 
of  the  final  ruin  of  the  Jewish  nation,  about  fifty  years 
after  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Adrian  (A.  D.  120),  when  the  Jews  were  utterly 
driven  out  of  Judea.^ 

Before  attempting  to  reply  to  the  argument  embodied 
in  this  statement,  it  may  be  well  to  restate  the  propo- 
sition against  which  it  may  be  alleged,  viz.  :  That  in 
his  Gospel,  St.   Matthew  used  the  same  local,  popular 

^  See  Translation  of  Miinter's  Jewish  TFar,  by  W.  W. 
Turner,  in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  No.  III.,  1843. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.        207 

names  for  Babylonia  and  Persia  that  he  would  have  used 
in  common  conversation  ;  and  to  call  to  mind  that  with 
other  evidence  for  this  proposition,  there  were  these 
facts,  that  he  was  an  unlettered  man,  and  wrote  prima- 
rily and  peculiarly  for  his  countrymen.^ 

The  argument  before  stated,  as  one  that  might  be 
brought  against  this  proposition,  has  much  of  seeming 
force,  but  there  are  several  considerations,  some  of 
which  singly,  and  certainly  all  of  them  collectively, 
seem  to  be  a  sufficient  answer  to  it.  First.  The  veri- 
fication and  illustration  from  general  miscellaneous 
literature  of  any  historical  or  geographical  phrase  is 
quite  a  thing  of  chance.  That  it  is  possible  to  trace  so 
clearly  and  fully  in  the  literature  of  the  Hebrews  the 
use  of  the  term,  the  East,  with  its  different  meanings, 
in  different  circumstances  and  times,  is  remarkable. 
It  is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  wonderful  clearness  with 
which  the  whole  life  of  the  Hebrews  of  old,  their  man- 
ners, customs,  modes  of  speech  and  forms  of  thought, 
their  country  and  themselves,  are  mirrored  in  their 
Scripture  —  a  minuteness,  a  fulness,  a  faithfulness  of 
national  self-portraiture,  that  makes  their  literature  such 

^  It  would  strengthen  the  argument  that  follows,  here  to 
add  —  in  Judea :  aud,  from  an  inquiry  made  as  to  the 
date,  the  plan  of  his  Gospel,  and  the  circumstances  in  which 
it  was  written,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  very  strong  rea- 
sons to  think  that  it  would  thus  more  exactly  state  the  fact. 
But  to  draw  out  the  evidence  of  tliis  would  lead  far  awav, 
and  the  statement  made  in  the  text,  the  correctness  of  which 
will  be  generally  conceded,  so  far  suffices  for  my  purpose, 
that  this  may  be  dispensed  with. 


208        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

as  it  should  be,  since  it  is  that  of  the  people  and  the 
land  that  are  the  centre  of  all  human  memory. 

Second.  The  clear  and  thorous^h  understandins^  of  the 
position,  against  which  this  argument  may  be  alleged, 
goes  far  to  answer  it.  For  the  usage  in  question  is  not 
that  of  a  man  of  the  schools,  writing  in  the  artificial 
style  of  rhetoricians,  but  of  a  man  of  the  people,  who 
in  this  case  chose  to  use  local  and  colloquial  terms, 
idioms  of  the  popular  speech.  If  so,  the  probability  is 
strong  indeed  that  general  literature  will  not  illustrate 
and  verify  his  usage  and  meaning.  Thus,  in  this 
country,  some  years  since,  a  series  of  political  letters 
were  published  in  a  volume  called  "Letters  from  Down 
East."  All  understood  by  this  phrase,  the  State  of 
Maine  ;  but  if,  some  thousands  of  years  hence,  this  book, 
by  some  strange  chance,  shall  have  survived  the  mu- 
tations of  states  and  of  language,  it  is  quite  possible  that 
all  the  learned  geographies  and  histories  of  this  time 
and  nation,  then  extant,  might  then  be  searched  in  vain 
to  find  out  what  was  meant  by  a  phrase  now  so  familiar 
to  the  lips  of  a  part  of  our  people,  and  through  them 
known  to  the  whole. 

Third.  The  literature  referred  to,  as  now  extant,  is 
by  no  means  large.  It  may  be  said  to  consist  of  the 
Apocrypha,  the  New  Testament,  the  writings  of  Philo 
and  Josephus,  and  perhaps  some  small  part  of  the 
Apocryphal  Gosj^els.^     Now,  surely,  it  would  not  be 

^  These  would  not  come  within  the  later  of  the  termini 
before  assigned  to  this  literature,  but  it  is  hardly  certain 
that  any  part  of  them  belongs  to  it,  and  in  other  respects 


THE    EAST   AND    THE    FAR   EAST.  209 

Strange  if  the  writino^s  of  a  single  Enfi^lish  author  should 
not  furnish  any  illustration  of  some  peculiar  English 
phrase,  yet  there  are  English  authors  whose  writings 
exceed  in  compass  the  whole  of  this  literature.  More 
than  half  of  it  is  so  purely  of  a  didactic,  moral,  and 
religious  kind,  that  it  must  in  a  great  measure  be  laid 
out  of  the  account.  Almost  all  of  it  was  written  outside 
of  Palestine,  so  that  a  local  Palestinian  usage,  even  were 
it  more  than  a  colloquial  and  popular  expression,  would 
not  be  found  or  referred  to  in  it,  except  by  rarest  acci- 
dent, the  merest  chance.  Thus,  for  these  reasons,  it  is 
not  to  be  looked  for  in  the  writings  of  Philo,  nor  in 
parts  of  the  Apocrypha  ascribed  to  Alexandrian  Jews. 
It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  in  most  of  the  lands  in 
which  the  Jews  were  found,  St.  Matthew's  names  for 
Babylonia  and  Persia  would  not  have  been  locally  appro- 
priate ;  and,  that  a  Jew  of  Palestine  could  have  found, 
in  the  Greek,  names  he  might  think  more  fitting,  as 
more  generally  intelligible. 

In  the  New  Testament  there  is  but  one  place  where  to 
look  for  this  usage ;  and  that  is  in  the  enumeration  by 
St.  Peter  of  the  countries  from  which  there  were  Jews 
present  in  Jerusalem  at  the  feast  of  Pentecost.^  Even 
then  as  he  was  speaking  to  an  assembly  largely  made 
up  of  men  from  foreign  parts,  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  he  would  use  a  local  phrase,  or,  if  he  did,  St. 
Luke  may  have  translated  this  into  the  common  speech 

that  date  is  so  satisfactory,  that  it   Avould  be  hypercritical 
to  object  to  it  on  this  account. 
1  Acts  ii.  9,  10,  11. 
14 


210        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

of  the  world.  But  the  Apostle's  enumeration,  though 
comprehensive,  is  not  exhaustive.  He  neither  mentions 
Babylonia,  nor  the  great  Jewish  settlement  beyond  the 
Tigris,  in  Adiabene,  the  seat  of  the  old  Assyrian  king- 
dom, to  which  King  Agrippa  said  the  Jews  of  Palestine 
looked  so  earnestly  for  aid  in  their  great  war  with  Home. 
Perhaps,  this  was  in  both  cases  because  the  fact  was  so 
well  known  and  apparent ;  for  he  mentions  some  coun- 
tries, the  representatives  from  which  must  have  been 
few  indeed.  He  names  Parthians  and  Medes  from  be- 
yond the  Tigris  ;  Elamites  from  near  the  southern  part 
of  the  Country  of  the  Two  Rivers ;  dwellers  in  Meso- 
potamia, its  northern  part ;  but  those  of  its  great  central 
region  are  not  spoken  of.  Nor  is  there  any  mention  of 
the  country  of  Babylonia  in  the  New  Testament,  save 
that  of  St.  Matthew ;  though  the  name  of  the  City  of 
Babylon  occurs  in  the  Apocalypse,  and  in  the  First 
Epistle  of  St.  Peter. 

The  volumes  of  Josephus  are  freighted  with  mis- 
cellaneous lore,  but  the  second  proposition  stated  above 
almost  forbids  any  hope  of  finding  in  them  the  popular, 
colloquial  phrase  of  St.  Matthew.  And  more  than  this, 
he  could  not  have  used  it,  for  this  decisive  reason,  which 
applies  with  equal  force  to  Phllo-Judaeus :  In  their 
writings  that  have  come  down  to  us,  they  addressed 
theltomayi  world;  and,  in  their  time,  with  the  Greeks 
and  the  Romans  the  East  was  the  name  for  Syria. 

The  conclusion,  then,  is,  that  the  argument  against 
the  Interpretation  that  has  been  given  to  St.  Matthew's 
terms,  from  the  absence  of  similar  usage  in  the  Hebraic- 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.        211 

Greek  literature  referred  to,  is  found,  on  examination, 
to  have  little  or  no  appreciable  weight. 

2.  Next,  let  us  consider  the  argument  against  this 
interpretation,  in  the  fact  that  ancient  tradition  makes 
the  Wise  Men  Arabs.  In  the  second  century,  Jus- 
tin Martyr  speaks  of  them  as  from  Arabia.^  Justin  was 
born  at  Shechem,  in  Samaria,  which  might  seem  to  give 
very  especial  weight  to  his  opinion.  But,  in  history, 
language,  and  origin,  the  people  of  Samaria  were  dis- 
tinct from  the  Jews  of  Judea  and  Galilee,  and  the 
reasons  given  for  St.  Matthew's  usage  by  no  means 
apply  with  the  same  force  to  the  Samaritans.^ 

1  01  ano  'JqaSiag  Mayov. —  Dial.  cum.  Tryph.  See.  78,  102. 

^  Though  not  strictly  in  place  here,  the  following  note  is 
too  important  to  be  omitted.  Some  may  think,  that  if  the 
explanation  of  St.  Matthew's  terms  herein  maintained  be 
correct,  there  would  necessarily  be  evidence  of  this  in  the 
Syriac  Testament,  because  of  the  likeness  of  its  language  to 
that  of  the  Palestinian  Jews  of  the  first  century.  If  so,  they 
do  not  clearly  mark  how  strictly  this  theory  is  limited  to  the 
Jews  of  Judea  and  Galilee.  The  theory  is,  that  the  usage, 
which  was  coming  in  just  before  the  exile,  became  an  idiom 
of  theirs  after  their  return  from  the  country  of  their  exile,  in 
consequence  of  all  their  relations  with  it. 

Of  the  area  of  such  phrases  the  limits  sometimes  are  wide 
and  vague  ;  sometimes  small  and  sharply  defined.  The  use 
of  the  East,  for  the  State  of  Maine,  with  good  reason  so  often 
referred  to,  aptly  illustrates  this  also.  It  is  colloquial  in 
about  two  thirds  of  Massachusetts  —  a  State  somewhat 
smaller  than  Palestine  —  and  in  half  of  New  Hampshire  ; 
while  in  the  Western  parts  of  those  states  it  is  not  common. 
Though  at  first  the  cause  of  this  is  not  very  apparent,  some- 
what of  geographical  and  historical  explanation  might  be 
given  of  it ;  but  the  point  here  is  the  limitation  only. 


212  THE    EAST   AND   THE   FAR   EAST. 

More  than  tins  ;  —  Jnstin  was  a  Greek,  the  son  of 
Priscus,  the  grandson  of  Bacchius,  one  of  a  colony 
planted  in  Samaria  by  the  Emperor  Yespasian ;  and  his 
parentage  makes  it  probable  that  he  knew  no  language 
but  his  native  Greek.  If  so,  the  mere  fact  that  he  was 
born  in  Samaria  —  it  is  not  certain  that  he  grew  up  there, 
and  he  seems  to  have  lived  in  Italy  —  hardly  makes  him 
a  more  decisive  authority  as  to  the  meaning  of  a  local 
phrase  of  Hebraic  origin  in  the  popular  speech  of  Judean 
and  Galilean  Jews,  than  if  he  had  been  born  in  Athens, 
or  in  Ephesus,  where  he  held  his  Dialogue  with 
Trypho. 

The  Jew  who  furnished  Celsus,  in  the  second  cen- 
tury, with  some  of  his  arguments  against  Christianity, 
calls  the  Wise  Men,  Chaldeans.  The  Apocryphal  Gos- 
pel of  the  Infancy  speaks  of  them  as  foretold  by  Zo- 
roaster.^ These  facts  are,  in  themselves,  of  slight  con- 
sequence, though  they  point  in  the  right  direction  ;  and 
are    mentioned    here    only   as  indications    that  from    a 

^  Evangelium  Infantias,  Chap.  YII.  Et  factum  cum  natus 
esset  Dominus  Jesus  Bethlehemi  urbe  Judejc,  tempore  Hero- 
dis  Regis  ;  ecce,  magi  veuerunt  ex  Oriente  Hierosolymas, 
quemadmodum  praedixerat  Zoradaseht.  And  it  came  to 
pass  when  the  Lord  Jesus  was  born  at  Bethlehem,  a  city  of 
Judea,  in  the  time  of  Herod  the  King,  Magi  came  from  the 
East  to  Jerusalem  according  to  tlie  prophecy  of  Zoradasclit 
(Zoroaster).  See  Jones  on  the  Canon,  Oxford,  1718,  vol. 
ii.  p.  172.  The  date  of  this  Apocryphal  Gospel  is  very 
uncertain.  Some  parts  of  it  may  be  as  old  as  the  second 
century,  others  are  thought  to  be  interpolations  of  a  much 
later  date. 


THE   EAST   AND    THE   FAR   EAST.  213 

very  early  period  there  was  that  uncertainty  as  to  what 
St.  Matthew  meant,  which  might  well  have  arisen  from 
his  use  of  a  local  idiom,  whose  significance  was  clear 
and  exact  only  to  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  —  an  uncer- 
tainty easily  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  with  the  Fall 
of  Jerusalem  there  began  to  open  a  wide  and  deep  gulf 
of  separation,  dividing  both  Christians  and  Jews  from 
the  Holy  Land. 

Some  of  the  Fathers  — TertulHan,  Cyprian,  Hilary, 

Epiphanius  —  thought,   as  Justin    did,  that  the    Wise 

Men  were  Arabians.     But  in  this  case,  their  authority 

is  fairly  counterpoised,  and  more,  by  the  higher  authority 

and  very  significant  language  of  Chrysostom  ;  who,  in 

his  comment  on  Matthew  ii.,  though  he  could  not  have 

been  ignorant  of  this  tradition,  again  and  again  assumes 

the  fact  that  the  Wise  Men  were  Persians,  and  as  if  it 

were  a  thing  certain  beyond  all  doubt ;  as  when  he  says, 

"The  Jews  hear  first  from  the  language  of  Persia,  what 

they  would  not    hear  from  their  own  prophets  ; "  and 

again,  "Wherefore  this  double  flight?  that  of  the  Wise 

Men  to  Persia?  that  of  the  Child  to  Egypt?" 

The  former  opinion  may  have  arisen  from  the  old  use, 
so  frequent  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  of  the  name,  the 
East,  for  the  Desert.  This  usage,  though  obsolete  in 
St.  Matthew's  time,  was  quite  Ukely  to  mislead  men, 
not  natives  of  Palestine,  and  deeply  wise,  rather  than 
critically  learned,  in  the  Scriptures.  It  might  have 
originated,  in  those  uncritical  ages,  even  from  the  gifts 
of  the  Magi,  as  they  were  all  products  of  Arabia.  But 
they  were  not  exclusively  such ;  and  they  were  all  port- 


214        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

able  articles  of  merchandise.  Gold  was  a  common  gift, 
and  frankincense  was  much  used  in  Persia.  "Arabia 
was  required  to  furnish  annually  to  the  Persian  crown 
a  thousand  talents  weight  of  frankincense  ;  and  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  this  rare  spice  was  largely 
employed  about  the  Court,  since  the  walls  of  Persepo- 
lis  have  several  representations  of  censers,  which  are 
sometimes  carried  in  the  hand  of  an  attendant,  w^iile 
sometimes  they  stand  on  the  ground  immediately  in 
front  of  the  king."^  Without  a  present,  no  Asiatic 
king,  no  satrap,  no  sheik  even,  is  approached.  Those 
gifts  the  Magi  brought  were  such  as  any  persons  might 
have  brought  who  sought  kingly  audience  ;  and  though 
they  may  point  a  conjecture,  they  determine  nothing  as 
to  the  country  of  the  Wise  Men. 

As  Arabia  was  adjacent  to  Judea,  this  opinion  may 
seem  to  have  some  countenance,  from  the  fact,  that  to 
many  the  words  of  St.  Matthew  have  seemed  to  imply 
that  the  Wise  Men  came  very  soon  after  the  Nativity. 
Whether  they  do  imply  it,  is  very  questionable.  But, 
however  this  may  be,  the  date  of  the  M3'stery  of  the 
Incarnation,  and  of  the  outshining  of  the  Star,  may 
have  been  that  of  the  Annunciation. 

It  may  be  thought,  that  both  of  the  families  of  Abra- 
ham, the  children  of  Ishmael  as  well  as  the  children  of 
Jacob,  would  have  paid  early  homage  to  his  Son  ;  but 
while  this  w^orld-embracing  symbolism  of  the  worship  of 
the  Child  thus  shrinks  into  a  family  significance,  it  seems 

^  Rawlinson's  Five  Great  Monarchies,  Vol.  IV.  chap.  iii. 
page  1G4. 


THE    EAST    A^'D    THE    FAR    EAST.  215 

inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  the  Kingdom  of  Grace,  that 
this  homage  should  have  been  paid  by  degenerate  Arabs, 
who  had  departed  farther  from  the  Truth  than  some  not 
of  the  blood  of  Abraham. 

"  The  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the 
brightness  of  thy  rising.  .  .  .  All  they  from  Sheba  shall 
come,  thev  shall  brinof  "fold  and  incense."^  "The  kinora 
of  Sheba  and  Seba  shall  offer  gifts.  .  .  .  And  he  shall 
live,  and  to  him  shall  be  given  of  the  gold  of  Sheba." 
Some  of  the  Fathers  thought  that  these  prophecies  fore- 
told the  Wise  Men.  If  this  were  so,  they  must  have 
been  Arabians.  Now,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  apply  these 
prophecies  to  the  Wise  Men  may  be  right.  Men  of 
high  rank  they  w^ere  — forerunners  and  prophetic  types 
of  kings  to  come  after  them ;  in  them  the  prophecy 
"  kings  shall  come,"  began  to  have  its  germinant  fulfil- 
ling ;  and  the  words  "  he  shall  live  "  may  be  a  prophetic 
allusion  to  Herod's  attempt  to  murder  Jesus,  as  well  as 
to  his  resurrection  from  the  dead  ;  but  the  Wise  Men 
were  not  kings  ;  and  there  is  one  decisive  reason  why 
they  could  not  have  been  those  who  were  to  come  from 
Sheba  w^ith  gold  and  incense,  for  in  this  very  Gospel  of 
St.  Matthew  our  Lord  speaks  of  Sheba  as  the  South, '^ 
and  his  Evangelist  says,  the  Wise  Men  \yqyq,  from  the 
Far  East. 

3.  From  the  very  old  opinion  that  the  Wise  Men 
were  Arabians,  let  us  now  turn  to  a  very  new  notion, 
unknown  to  all  antiquity  —  that  the  word  in  the  second 
and  ninth  verses  rendered  the  East,  has  there  no  local 

^  Isaiah  Ix.  3,  6  ;  Psalm  Ixxii.  10,  15.         ^  Matt.  xii.  42. 


216        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

significance  whatever,  and  means  the  rising.  "  Where 
is  He  that  is  born,  for  we  have  seen  His  Star  in  its 
rising  ?  " 

I  premise  its  examination  by  saying,  that  if  its  cor- 
rectness could  be  conceded,  the  argument  in  Chapter 
First  of  this  book,  proving  that  the  Wise  jNIen  were 
Persians,  would  remain  just  as  before.  Its  demonstra- 
tion of  that  fact  is  not  touched  at  all  by  this  inter- 
pretation. 

But  its  correctness,  or  even  its  plausibility,  cannot 
be  conceded.  It  were  to  be  wished,  that  those  who  in- 
vented it  had  carefully  considered  and  plainly  told  what 
this  strange  rendering  means.  They  may  suppose  some 
astronomical  significance  in  the  term,  as  the  rising  of  a 
planet  or  of  a  constellation  before  the  sun,  was  a  nota- 
ble fact  in  the  ancient  science  of  the  stars.  If  such  were 
the  meaning,  then  there  must  have  been  a  star  known 
to  these  Persians  as  the  Star  of  the  King  of  the  Jews  ; 
and,  some  reason  why  an  especial  significance  attached 
to  its  heliacal  rising  in  that  year  :  either  of  which  con- 
sequences, if  this  be  the  notion,  are  suflftcient  to  dis- 
credit it. 

It  is  more  probable  to  suppose  that  they  would  have 
the  Star's  "  rising  "  taken  as  equivalent  to  its  outshining. 
Against  this  there  are  several  reasons. 

First.  If  such  be  the  meaning  of  the  Greek,  the 
way  it  is  expressed  is  awkward  and  odd. 

Second.  It  has  been  the  concurring  opinion  of  all 
Christian  ages  that  the  words  of  the  Wise  Men  express 
a   sudden    outshininoj  of   the   Star,   and  this  while  the 


THE    EAST    AND    THE    FAR    EAST.  217 

term  Anatole,  as  used  by  them,  has  always  been 
taken  as  having  a  local  significance.  In  the  novel 
sense  sought  to  be  fixed  upon  it,  the  word,  then,  is 
superfluous  ;  and  if  so,  it  is  the  only  superfluous  word 
in  St.   Matthew. 

Third.  If  it  means  the  rising,  "we  should  expect 
to  find  atiov,  if  not  here,"  that  is,  in  verse  second,  *'*  cer- 
tainly in  verse  ninth."  —  Alford. 

Fourth.  Because  the  antithesis  between  the  East 
and  the  place  where  the  Child  was  born,  "obviously 
bring  out  a  local  difference."  —  Meyer. 

Fifth.  Because  this  rendering  "is  in  opposition  to 
the  apparently  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Vulgate,  Syriac, 
Coptic,  and  other  ancient  versions."  —  Bishop  Ellicott, 
Life  of  Christ,  p.  79,  n.  If  it  be  said,  the  theory 
that  the  word  in  question  was  a  local  name  for  Baby- 
lonia is  also  opposed  to  the  ancient  versions,  it  is  to  be 
said,  in  reply,  the  cases  are  neither  the  same,  nor  simi- 
lar. The  strange  rendering  is  diverse  from  the  old, 
and  cannot  be  harmonized  with  it.  In  all  the  old  ver- 
sions, some  locality  is  denoted  by  their  literal  render- 
ing of  the  phrase,  and  the  interpretation  that  marks  a 
difference  in  the  form  of  A'iiatole  the  second  time  it  is 
used,  unexpressed  in  those  ver^ions,  gives  it,  in  that 
case,  no  sense  radically  different  from  that  of  the  ver- 
sions, or  from  its  previous  use,  but  only  one  that  is 
more  definite. 

Sixth.  This  strans^e  renderinor  seems  to  have  come 
wholly  from  the  usage  as  to  this  term  in  classical  Greek  ; 
referring   to    which,    it    is    said,   "the    phrase,    in    the 


218  THE    EAST   AND    THE    FAR  EAST. 

East,  would  require  the  plural."  —  Lange.  This  is  the 
sole  argument  in  its  favor,  and  it  seems  a  strong  one 
until  it  is  found  that  as  to  this  term  the  usage  in  the 
Hebraized  Greek  dialect  of  Palestine  was  different  from 
that  of  classical  Greek.  The  word  repeatedly  occurs  in 
the  singular,  with  a  local  sense,  in  the  Hebraized  Greek 
of  Josephus.  His  usage  effectually  disposes  of  this 
allegation,  changing  it  from  an  argument  into  an  erro- 
neous assertion.  This  rendering  is  in  fact  a  rash, 
unwise  innovation,  with  nothing  to  commend  or  de- 
fend it. 

In  conclusion.  If  the  interpretation  herein  main- 
tained be  rejected,  there  is  no  interpretation  oi  Anatole, 
as  found  in  the  second  and  in  the  ninth  verses  ;  that  is, 
none  of  the  difference  in  the  significance  of  the  word 
which  the  Evangelist  indicates  by  there  changing  its 
form.  Each  of  the  two  forms  points  in  the  same 
direction,  and  to  some  region  eastward  of  Palestine. 
The  English,  Latin,  and  other  versions,  express  some- 
what of  this  sameness  of  meaning  by  rendering  each  in 
the  same  way,  that  is,  as  if  the  word  had  the  same  form 
in  each  place  ;  and  thus  do  not  interpret  the  difference 
between  its  two  forms  at  all.  The  interpretation  herein 
set  forth  expresses  their  sameness  and  difference,  gives 
to  each  an  exact  meaning,  and  explains  the  change  in  the 
form,  and  its  significance.  If  it  be  rejected,  then,  of 
that  which  is  characteristic  of  the  form  in  the  second 
and  ninth  verses,  of  its  peculiar,  especial  meaning,  there 
is  no  interpretation  ;  there  it  stands  as  inexplicable  as 
the  words  on  the  palace-wall  to  Belshazzar. 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST.        219 

It  may  be  said,  it  is  a  solitary  instance  of  such  an 
idiom ;  but  what  does  that  really  amount  to,  in  this 
case,  where  we  are  as  sure  of  the  meaning  as  if  there 
were  twenty  other  examples  of  it.  This  may  be  illus- 
trated by  Genesis  xiii.  1,  where  it  is  said,  "Abraham 
went  up  out  of  Egypt  into  the  South,"  which  seems 
very  much  like  saying,  he  went  up  out  of  the  South 
into  the  South.  As  he  was  journeying  northwards, 
some  might  conjecture  that  "the  South"  should  be 
erased,  and  the  North  inserted  in  its  stead.  Others 
mioht  search  throuo^h  the  Hebrew  Lexicon  for  a  word 
that  would  reconcile  the  seeming  contradiction,  and 
whose  letters  are  so  nearly  like  those  of  the  word  for 
the  South,  that  a  careless  copyist  might  have  written 
one  for  the  other  —  and  what  other  critical  devices 
might  be  thought  of,  it  were  hard  to  tell.  And  so, 
when  the  geography  of  Palestine  was  less  minutely 
known  than  now,  the  matter  must  have  rested.  But 
when  it  is  known  that  at  the  foot  of  the  hill-country  of 
Judea,  between  it  and  the  desert,  there  is  a  strip  of  level 
and  fertile  land  which  is  good  pasture  for  flocks  and 
herds  when  the  uplands  are  brown  and  dry,  it  is  at 
once  probable  that  the  herdsmen,  whose  homes  were  on 
the  northern  hills  above  it,  gave  to  this  plain  the  name 
of  the  South.  Then  it  would  be  called  so  though  ap- 
proached from  the  opposite  quarter  ;  and  by  this  natural 
hypothesis  the  usage  is  so  well  explained,  that  it  is  the 
accepted  interpretation  of  it,  and  would  be,  were  there 
no  other  verse  in  Hebrew  Scripture  to  confirm  it. 

Why  not  accept  a  similar  course  of  reasoning  as  to 


220        THE  EAST  AND  THE  FAR  EAST. 

St.  ]\Iatthew's  phrases,  which  undoubtedly  have  some 
geographical  sense,  even  though  his  usage  stood  alone? 
But  it  does  not  really  stand  alone.  It  does  so,  in  the 
very  scanty  remains  of  Palestinian,  Hebraic  Greek, 
but  it  is  a  usage  vy^hose  main  features  all  appear  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  —  in  the  writings  of  Isaiah,  of 
Ezekiel,  and  in  the  Book  of  the  Kings. 


PERSIAN   AND    HEBREW    RELIGIONS.  221 


II, 


RELATION   OF  THE   PERSIAN   AND   THE   HEBREW 
RELIGIONS. 

The  knowledge  of  the  truth  revealed  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  thence  onward  to  the  time  when  the  family 
of  the  Patriarch  Noah  was  the  Human  Race,  was  saved 
in  one  nation  from  its  degeneracy  in  every  other,  by 
an  inspiration  through  which  that  Truth  was  preserved 
without  corruption.  All  other  nations  tried  to  do  this, 
but  made  the  Word  of  God  of  none  effect  throug^h  vain 
traditions. 

These  human  trials  prove  the  human  need ;  these 
human  failures,  the  divine  success.  Had  not  God,  with 
one  people,  thus  kept  pure  the  knowledge  of  His  Truth, 
it  would  not  have  continued  free  from  error ;  for  else- 
where it  did  not.  Had  He  not  revealed  His  guidance 
of  this  people,  it  could  not  have  been  clearly  known. 
In  the  other  ancient  nations,  error  and  sin  hide  His 
Truth  and  His  Grace;  in  some  nations  less,  in  others 
more ;  with  all  so  much,  that  the  history  of  their  Reli- 
gion can  only  be  imperfectly  written ;  nor  would  this 
have  been  otherwise,  had  the  most  ample  material  for 
it,  of  a  merely  human  kind,  survived. 


222  RELATION    OF   THE   PERSIAN 

The  Religion  of  the  Hebrews  was  holy  :  they  them- 
selves were  so  unholy,  that  it  might  be  said,  their 
religion  never  was  their  religion.  With  histories  of 
them  such  as  those  of  other  nations  are,  it  would  not  be 
possible  to  do  justice  to  their  religion ;  nor  would  their 
religion,  if  thus  known,  present  the  contrast  it  does  to 
those  of  other  ancient  nations  —  thoughts  that  might  be 
expanded  into  an  argument  for  the  Inspiration  of  their 
Sacred  Books. 

The  other  nations  went  more  on  their  own  way. 
Some  were,  at  times,  recalled  towards  the  Lord;  and 
the  illumination  of  His  nearer  presence,  as  in  the  earlier, 
better  days  of  the  virtue  of  Rome,  was  followed  by  an 
outshining  of  civilization,  sooner  or  later  darkening,  as 
again  they  went  farther  from  the  Light  of  the  World. 
Some  were  held  by  Him  stationary  on  the  same  plane, 
—  as  the  Chinese,  —  or  were  suffered  to  sink  from  it  by 
scarcely  percej^tible  degradation.  Others  were  left  to 
wander  farther  and  farther  from  the  eastern  morning 
light,  until  the  moral  and  spiritual  distinctions  between 
them  are  lost  in  the  undistinguishing  darkness  of  bar- 
barism. 

These  things  seem  to  have  been  permitted,  that,  as 
the  individual  learns  by  his  errors  what  he  would  learn 
in  no  other  way,  so  a  warning  experience  might  be 
wrought  into  the  being  of  the  human  race.  It  seems 
a  part  of  the  divine  plan  for  the  Redemption  of  Man, 
to  suffer  many  forms  of  departure  from  God,  that  the 
nations  may  learn  that  each  aberration  from  Him  is  an 


AND   THE    HEBREW    RELIGIONS.  223 

advance  towards  ruin.  This  seems  to  be  the  continuinsr 
history  of  man,  which,  changing  its  form,  keeps  its 
spirit,  as  heathenism  changes  to  what  is  called  Chris- 
tianity. Yet,  while  He  "  turneth  man  to  destruction," 
by  giving  him  up  to  his  own  will,  God  ever  saith,  with 
even  greater  power  of  persuasion,  "Keturn,  ye  children 
of  men  !  " 

It  is  written,  The  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  Him, 
and  the  remainder  He  will  restrain.  This  divine  suffer- 
ance and  restraint  of  Evil  are  parts  of  one  plan,  whose 
relations  to  each  other  are  none  the  less  certain,  because 
it  is  impossible  fully  to  learn  how  they  unite  in  one 
result.  If,  then,  the  error  that  has  usurped  the  place 
of  Truth  in  the  religions  of  men  has  been  the  occasion 
of  good,  much  more  must  good  have  abounded  from 
that  indestructible  and  undestroyed  Truth  in  them, 
which,  in  the  beginning,  was  the  gift,  and  afterwards 
the  medium,  of  the  mercy  of  God  ;  —  that  Truth  which, 
quickening  the  moral  sense,  and  thus  giving  for  a  time 
a  purity  to  the  intellect,  and  a  nobleness  of  purpose, 
was  the  hidden  but  potent  cause  of  civilizations  of  old, 
such  as  that  of  Greece,  from  which  ennobling  influences 
still  continue. 

In  trying  to  learn  something  of  the  religions  of  the 
world,  the  Bible  aids  us  by  revealing  that  the  mercy  of 
the  Lord  is  over  all  His  w^orks  ;  that  He  made  of  one 
blood  all  the  nations  of  men,  and  determined  the  bounds 
of  their  habitation,  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord  ; 
and  that  in  every  nation,  whosoever  feared  God,  and 


224  RELATION    OF    THE    PERSIAN 

worked  righteousness,  was  accepted  with  Him  ;  through 
its  outline  of  the  early  history  of  mankind,  and  through 
allusions  to  peoples  other  than  the  Hebrew  :  though,  as 
to  these,  little  is  told ;  for  the  Word  never  speaks  to 
gratify  the  pride  of  the  human  intellect. 

All  preceding  antiquity  has  been  very  much  hidden 
by  classical  antiquity,  as  more  distant  are  hidden  by 
nearer  mountains.  This  ill-proportioned  view  of  anti- 
quity, which  was  practically  restricted  to  Italy  and 
Greece,  is  opening  into  a  larger  and  wiser  vision ;  and 
this  is  well  ;  for  classical  antiquit}^  is  of  modern  date 
compared  with  primeval  antiquity,  and  the  reminis- 
cences of  revealed  truth  with  the  Komans  and  the 
Greeks  were  foint  and  few,  compared  with  those  of 
older  Eastern  nations. 

In  the  primeval  revelation,  and  so  in  revelation  even 
when  complete,  there  are  only  a  few  great  truths,  a  few 
great  facts,  a  few  precepts.  All  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets  are  in  the  two  commands,  "Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself."  Sublime  truths  !  holy  precepts  !  —  precepts 
of  endless  adaptations,  and  the  germs  of  whole  codes 
of  customs  and  laws  ;  truths  of  endless  self-revealing, 
yet  in  number  few.  Were  thought  more  turned  to 
the  presence  of  these  in  the  religion  of  the  classic 
nations,  and  their  origin  and  preservation  more  intel- 
ligently referred  to  the  grace  of  the  Lord,  more  of  the 
affinity  of  all  Truth  would  be  discerned,  through  a 
clearer  perception  of  its  community  of  Divine  Origin. 

But  in  Asia,  rather  than  in  Europe,  the  truest  idea 


AND    THE    HEBREW    RELIGIOXS.  225 

of  the  religion  of  man  is  attainable.  It  is  there  history 
most  fully  bears  witness  to  the  fact  revealed  —  that  God 
gave  to  the  whole  human  family,  in  its  beginning,  the 
heritage  of  the  Truth. 

Freed  from  their  accretions  of  error,  all  the  ancient 
religions  are  thus  far  the  same.  In  them  all  are  these 
three  elements  :  Truth  Revealed,  Truth  discerned  by 
the  Moral  Reason,  and  the  Grace  of  the  Lord.  To 
understand  something  of  the  Relations  of  the  various 
forms  of  Religion  to  each  other,  and  to  Christianity, 
is  pre-requisite  to  any  clear  idea  of  the  history  of  the 
Redemption  of  man  —  that  great  purpose  of  God,  the 
central  truth  of  all  history,  and  without  which  there 
could  be  no  history.  I  propose  to  consider  that  Rela- 
tion between  the  Persian  and  the  Hebrew  Relioion,  susf- 
gested  by  the  Pilgrimage  of  Magi  to  Jerusalem. 

As  to  this  Relation,  there  have  been  three  conjectures  : 
first,  that  Zoroaster  was  taught  by  Hebrew  Prophets  ; 
second,  that  several  Leading  Ideas  of  the  Religion 
of  the  Hebrews,  which  have  since  become  Christian 
doctrines,  had  their  origin  with  the  Persians ;  third, 
that  neither  religion  was  in  any  way  affected  by  the 
other. 

Dr.  Hyde,  appointed  Professor  of  Hebrew  at  Oxford, 
in  1697,  maintained,  with  learning  and  zeal,  the  an- 
tiquity and  purity  of  the  Persian  Religion  ;  but  in  his 
time,  the  means  for  investigating  the  history  of  Zoro- 
aster were  inadequate ;  and  he  fell  into  the  error  of 
giving  some  credence  to  the  fable,  that  he  w^as  a  servant 
of  one  of  the  Hebrew  Prophets,  He  was  exposed  to 
15 


226  RELATION    OF    THE    PERSIAN 

this  error,  because  he  fixed  the  time  of  Zoroaster  in  the 
reign  of  Darius,  B.C.  521-486,  —  the  fourth  Persian 
monarch,  the  same  against  whose  Generals  the  Athe- 
nians fought  at  Marathon. 

In  1770,  Anquetil  Du  Perron  published  a  translation 
of  the  Zenda vesta,  made  from  manuscripts  found  by 
him  in  India.  His  brilliant  discovery  of  these  threw 
new  light  upon  the  Zoroastrian  religion  ;  but  so  great 
was  the  difficulty  of  accurately  and  thoroughly  trans- 
lating its  old-time  documents,  that  not  until  within  a 
very  few  years  can  this  be  said  to  have  been  accom- 
plished. Dr.  Martin  Haug,  who,  following  Du  Perron's 
track,  went  out  to  India,  seeking  the  aid  of  the  Parsees 
in  the  study  of  their  religion,  in  1862  so  far  completed 
the  zealous  inquiries  began  by  other  scholars,  that  the 
facts  as  to  the  Zoroastrian  religion  are  probably,  in  the 
main,  as  definitely  ascertained  now  as  they  ever  will 
be  ;  and  it  only  remains  to  determine  its  true  signifi- 
cance and  relation  to  other  religions  of  the  world. 

Dr.  Hyde,  like  some  other  scholars  since  his  time, 
was  misled  as  to  the  Age  of  Zoroaster  by  some  of  the 
Greek  writers,  who  confounded  the  name  of  Darius 
Hystaspes  with  that  of  a  king  or  chief  of  a  different 
epoch,  who  was  the  friend  of  Zoroaster.  The  precise 
date  of  this  far  earlier  King,  Yistaspa,  cannot  be  ascer- 
tained ;  but  it  must  have  been  before  the  conquest  of  all 
Iran  by  the  Assyrians,  which  was  not  far  from  twelve 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  Professor  Whitney  places 
the  Age  of  Zoroaster  at  least  one  thousand  years, 
Spiegel  two   thousand  years,  Dr.  Haug  not  less  than 


AND   THE    H]?BREW   RELIGIONS.  227 

a  thousand,  and  probably  more  than  fifteen  hundred, 
years  before  the  Christ iau  Era. 

Zoroaster  no  more  originated  the  religion  associated 
with  his  name,  than  Confucius  did  that  of  the  Chinese, 
or  Elijah  that  of  the  Hebrews.  He  battled  against 
idolatrous  tendencies,  and  confirmed  the  belief  of  his 
people  in  one  God.  He  was  the  Reformer,  not  the 
Author  of  their  faith. ^  He  was  one  of  a  succession  of 
j^riests,  who,  like  him,  ministered  before  a  flame  of  fire  ; 
and  he  speaks  of  ancient  customs  and  words.  These 
facts  come  out  clearly  in  the  few  words  that  are  indis- 
putably his;  and  from  them,  and  from  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  it  is  certain  that  his  religion  can  be 
traced  back  to  within  a  few  centuries  of  the  Flood. 
The  scene  of  his  life  was  in  Bactria,  in  the  eastern  part 
of  Iran  ;  and  that  he  knew  anything  of  Abraham,  is  in 
the  last  degree  improbable ;  that  he  knew  anything  of 
Moses,  is  incredible  ;  and  that  he  was  taught  by  one 
of  the  later  Hebrew  Prophets,  is  impossible.  Yet  such 
notions  might  be  maintained  with  some  plausibility,^ 
so  long  as   it  was  unknown  that  the  word  Zoroaster, 


^  Dr.  Hang  thinks  the  struggle  "  may  have  lasted  centu- 
ries before  Zoroaster  Spitama  struck  a  death-blow  at  idol- 
atry, and  banished  it  from  his  native  soil  of  Iran." 

^  Some  of  the  Mohammedan  writers  report  that  the  Magi 
traced  their  books  to  Abraham,  whom  they  regarded  as  their 
prophet.  The  Parsee  priests  invented  this  fable  to  escape 
persecution,  as  only  those  religions  were  tolerated  by  the 
Mohammedans,  whose  sacred  books  connected  them  with 
Jewish  Prophets  acknowledged  by  Mohammed. 


228  RELATION   OF   THE    PERSIAN 

though  thought  by  the  Greeks  to  be  the  name  of  an 
individual,  was  a  title,  like  that  of  Pope,  and  denoted 
the  head  of  the  spiritual  community  among  the  Medes 
and  Persians. 

The  second  opinion  is  as  much  an  error  as  the  first. 
The  germs  of  all  those  religious  ideas  of  the  Hebrews, 
which  have  been  developed  into  Christian  doctrines,  are 
found  in  their  scriptures  long  before  they  knew  the 
Persians.  Such  little  resemblance  as  there  may  be 
between  those  ideas  of  the  Hebrews  and  ideas  of  the 
Persians,  is  hardly  more  than  would  naturally  follow 
from  the  influence  of  primal  revelation  in  both  nations, 
and  from  the  common  element  of  the  moral  Reason. 
None  of  those  religious  ideas  of  the  Hebrew  people 
came  through  their  acquaintance  with  any  other  people, 
though  the  development  of  some  of  them  may  have 
been  quickened  through  their  intercourse  with  other 
nations,  and  especially  with  the  Medes  and  the  Persians. 
This  is  probable ;  but  even  of  this  there  is  no  direct 
historical  evidence. 

A  searchino^  criticism  would  show  that  the  seemingj 
resemblance  between  the  Hebrew  and  the  Persian  reli- 
gions is  sometimes  superficial,  sometimes  deceptive,  and 
sometimes  illusive.  Thus  the  Monotheism  which,  in 
a  large  and  charitable  construction  of  it,  must  be  as- 
cribed to  the  religion  of  the  Persians,  in  its  creed  is 
marred  by  the  prime  error  of  dividing  the  work  of 
creation  between  Ahriman  and  Ormazd ;  and  subse- 
quently by  the  worship  of  Mithra,  the  Sun,  which  is 
recognized  in  inscriptions  of  their  PontiflT  Kings,  and 


AND   THE    HEBREW    RELIGIONS.  229 

even  in  the  Zendavesta  itself,  in  its  later,  degenerate 
teachings.  The  resemblance  between  the  Hebrew  and 
the  Persian  idea  of  the  Evil  Spirit  is  deceptive.  They 
were  radically  different.  The  plausible  conjecture, 
acceded  to  by  Milman,  —  that  the  figurative  language 
of  the  New  Testament  referring  to  the  element  Light, 
is  borrowed  from  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  —  is  illusive. 
The  root  of  this  instructive  and  remarkable  imagery 
is  in  the  sublime  chapter  that  opens  the  revelation  of 
God.  There,  Light  is  the  medium  through  which  the 
glory  of  God  is  revealed  in  the  work  of  Creation.  It  is 
the  life-o^ivino^  and  form-Mvino-  element.  Accordino^  to 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  this  element  is  in  nature  what 
it  is  in  the  Temple  —  the  Shekinah  of  the  Divine  Pres- 
ence. It  is  the  mantle  of  the  Deity.  The  Almighty 
challenges  man  to  pierce  through  its  mystery.  Thus 
inspiration,  giving  to  the  Hebrews  of  old  all,  and  more 
than  all,  the  fulness  of  the  modern  thought,  of  one  force 
in  nature,^  made  this  inscrutable  and  universal  element 
the  very  breath  of  the  presence  of  Him  in  whom  all 
things  live  and  move  and  have  their  being.  This  mys- 
terious element  is  the  symbol  of  the  Creating  Word  of 
God,  who,  incarnate  in  the  form  of  man,  is  the  bright- 
ness of  the  Father's  glory  ;  that  which  is  revealed  of 
the  presence  and  work  of  this  element  in  the  material 


^  See  The  Church  and  Science,  or  the  Ancient  Hebraic 
Idea  of  Creation.  Part  II.  Chap,  iii.,  The  First  Cycle  in 
Creation;  Chap,  viii.,  Light  representing  the  One  Force  in 
the  Inorganic  World.     Andover,  1860. 


230  RELATION   OF   THE   PERSIAN 

creation,  making  it  the  most  fitting  image  of  Christ  the 
Lord  in  the  spiritual  creation.  When  it  is  said  in  the 
New  Testament,  "In  Him  was  Life,  and  the  Life  was 
the  Light  of  men,"  it  is  in  a  revehition  which  commences 
in  the  very  words  that  begin  the  Old,  which  throughout 
pointedly  refers  to  the  record  of  the  Creation,  and  bor- 
rows this  figure  from  it ;  and  all  the  frequent  language 
in  the  New  Testament  is  conformed  to  this  imasfe.  It 
is  the  recurrence  of  very  similar  language  in  the  Old, — 
as  any  reader  of  the  Bible,  with  merely  the  aid  of  a 
Concordance,  can  prove  for  himself.  Does  St.  John 
speak  of  walking  in  the  light?  Isaiah  had  said,  "Come, 
let  us  walk  in  the  light  of  the  Lord."  Does  St.  James 
speak  of  God  as  "the  Father  of  Lights"?  It  was  writ- 
ten of  old,  "  God  said.  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light."  Does  St.  Paul  say,  "  God  dwelleth  in  light  un- 
approachable "  ?  It  was  written  of  old,  "He  covereth 
Himself  with  light  as  with  a  garment;"  and,  "He 
dwelleth  in  light."  Did  Christ  say,  "I  am  the  Light 
of  the  world"?  It  was  said  of  Him  of  old,  "I  will 
give  Thee  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles  :  The  people  that 
sat  in  darkness  saw  a  G^reat  lioht :  The  Lord  shall  be 
thy  everlasting  light." 

In  the  first  frenzy  of  discovery  in  Egyptian  archae- 
ology, there  was  a  strong  disposition  in  some,  more 
learned  than  wise,  to  refer  the  origin  of  many  of  the 
relio'ious  ideas  of  the  Hebrews,  and  most  of  their  usacres, 
to  the  Egyptians.  Gradually  this  notion  has  faded  out. 
It  may  now  and  then  revisit  the  glimpses  of  the  moon, 
when  some  garrulous   man,  or  silly  woman,  maunders 


AND    THE    HEBREW   RELIGIONS.  231 

in  the  tombs  of  Egypt ;  but  what  the  traveller's  dilated 
eyes  seem  to  see,  is  the  sickly  ghost  of  an  error  that 
is  dead  and  buried  in  a  grave  deep  and  secure,  and 
where  there  are  few  mourners.  So  it  will  be  with  the 
perverse  and  reckless  assertion  of  the  Persian  origin  of 
any  of  the  truths  of  the  Christian  religion. 

On  this  subject  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Haug  is  good 
authority.^  He  says,  "The  Zoroastrian  religion  ex- 
hibits even  a  close  affinity  to,  or  rather  identity  with, 
several  important  doctrines  of  the  Mosaic  religion  and 
Christianity,  such  as  the  personality  and  attributes  of 
the  Devil,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  which  are 
both  ascribed  to  the  religion  of  the  Magi,  and  are  really 
to  be  found  in  the  present  scriptures  of  the  Parsees. 
It  is  not  to  be  ascertained  whether  these  doctrines  were 
borrowed  by  the  Parsees  from  the  Jews,  or  by  the  Jews 
from  the  Parsees  :  very  likely  neither  is  the  case,  and 
in  both  religions  they  seem  to  have  sprung  up  inde- 
pendently." ^ 

^  Bunsen,  in  "  God  in  History,"  Book  III.  chap.  vi.  p.  292, 
speaks  of  the  "  important  discoveries  of  this  distinguished 
scholar."  Bunsen  himself  says,  in  the  same  work,  p.  284, 
**  The  myth  invented  by  German  scholars  of  the  purely  Per- 
sian origin  of  the  Hebrew  traditions,  belongs  to  the  infancy 
and  nonage  of  research  into  the  Book  of  Genesis  —  a  mis- 
leading hypothesis,  which  ought  not  in  decency  to  be  men- 
tioned, at  this  time  of  day,  by  any  scientific  man." 

^  Essays,  pages  2,  3.  He  adds  :  "In  the  Zendavesta  we 
meet  with  only  two  words  Avhich  may  be  traced  to  the  Semitic 
languages,  neither  of  them  referring  to  religions  subjects. 
In  the  later  books  of  the  Old  Testament  we  find  several  Per- 


232  RELATION    OF   THE    PERSIAN 

The  fact  is,  that  when  the  Christian  mind  comes  to 
the  study  of  the  monuments  of  the  Persian  religion,  it 
is  at  first  struck  with  its  seeming  or  real  resemblance  to 
the  Hebraic  and  Christian  systems,  and  the  same  is  the 
case,  in  some  measure,  with  other  religions  ;  but  the 
more  it  compares  them,  the  more  it  sees  and  feels  their 
difference,  until  nearly  all  feeling  or  sense  of  the  like- 
ness is  wisely  lost  in  that  of  the  diversity.  In  the  study 
of  the  one  there  is  an  ever  growing  perception  of  the 
errors  of  men  ;  in  the  other,  of  the  wisdom  of  God. 

The  extreme  of  opinion  in  one  direction  is  apt  to 
beget  an  extreme  of  error  in  an  opposite  direction. 
Such  may  be  the  case  with  some,  who,  in  opposition  to 
the  second,  hold  to  the  last  of  the  three  opinions  before 
stated.  This  opinion  grows  out  of  the  feeling  that  the 
religion  of  the  chosen  and  peculiar  people  could  not 
have  owed  anything  to  that  of  any  other  people ;  and 
surely,  even  the  Persians,  though  not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  heathen,  were  not  as  the  Israelites,  "to  whom 
pertained  the  adoption,  .  .  .  and  of  whom,  as  concerning 
the  flesh,  Christ  came,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed 
forever."  But  as  the  Drama  of  the  World  unfolds  in 
accordance  with  the  determinate  counsel  of  God,  it  can 
hardly  be  that  He  could  have  brought  two  nations,  so 
highly  favored  of  Him,  into  such  close  relations,  and 

sian  words,  and  many  names ;  but  these  have  nothing  to  do 
with  religion.  The  most  famous  of  these  Persian  words  in 
the  Old  Testament,  now  spread  throughout  the  world,  is  the 
word  Paradise,  which  meant  originally  a  park,  a  beautiful 
garden  fenced  in." 


AND    THE    HEBllEW   RELIGIONS.  233 

they  not  have  put  forth  upon  each  other  more  or  less  of 
mutual  religious  influence. 

The  Eg}' ptian,  Assyrian,  Greek  and  Roman,  oppressed 
the  people  of  Israel.  In  this  they  accomplished  the 
will  of  God,  but  did  so  unwittingly  and  unwillingly. 
The  Persian  was  the  intelligent  and  willing  servant 
of  God  in  saving  the  people  of  Israel  from  destruc- 
tion. He  broke  in  pieces  their  chains ;  he  restored 
them  to  Jerusalem.  Well  might  Israel  sing,  "  When 
the  Lord  turned  again  the  captivity  of  Zion,  we  were 
like  them  that  dream.  Then  was  our  mouth  filled 
with  laughter,  and  our  tongue  with  singing.  Then 
said  they  among  the  heathen.  The  Lord  hath  done 
great  things  for  them."  Dream-like,  indeed,  the  sw^ift 
transition  from  their  slavery,  in  the  last  night  of  Baby- 
lon, to  the  morning,  when,  bearing  with  it  the  golden 
vessels  of  the  Temple,  the  caravan  of  home-returning 
exiles  moved  from  the  Plain  of  Shinar  to  the  heights  of 
Jerusalem!  If  God,  "for  his  servant  Jacob's  sake," 
raising  the  Persians  to  the  height  of  dominion,  thus  per- 
mitted them  to  minister  to  Israel  in  things  temporal,  is  it 
inconceivable,  that  He  may  have  ordained  they  should 
also  minister  to  Israel  in  things  that  were  spiritual  ? 

It  is  an  unquestioned  opinion,  that  in  one  respect 
they  did.  The  chastening  of  their  exile  brought  the 
children  of  Israel  nearer  to  their  God  :  their  restoration 
to  Zion  made  them  grateful  to  Him,  and  the  fear  and 
love  thus  strengthened  in  their  souls  tended  to  keep 
ihem  from  the  apostasy  of  other  days.  But  this  ia 
to  be  attributed,  in  some  degree,   to  their  witness   of 


234  RELATION    OF    THE    PERSIAN 

the  fact,  thcat  the  people  who  had  cast  down  the  Might 
of  the  Heathen,  worshipped  the  God  of  Heaven. 

The  lesson  of  Persian  monotheism,  dominant  over  the 
World,  concurring  with  the  Divine  monitions  of  their 
history,  goes  far  to  explain  why  the  Hebrews,  after 
their  Caj)tivity,  though  the  living  voice  of  prophecy  was 
dying  away,  were  more  firm  in  their  faith  than  when 
Elijah  confounded  the  priests  of  Baal. 

If  it  be  conceded  that  the  belief  of  the  Hebrews  in 
one  God  was  strengthened  by  their  knowledge  of  the 
Persian  religion,  why  must  the  effect  of  that  religion 
upon  them  for  good  be  restricted  to  this  one  doctrine? 
Surely,  none  was  greater ;  and  as  to  this  very  doctrine, 
the  Persian  religion  was  darkly  in  error.  If  it  be  said 
that  there  is  no  direct  evidence  of  any  influence  as  to 
any  other  doctrine,  it  is  equally  true  as  to  this.  There 
is  a  strong  probability  that  it  was  so ;  and  there  is  the 
same  as  to  their  belief  in  the  Devil,  in  the  Angelic 
World,  and  in  the  Resurrection.  The  first  fact  in  the 
case  is,  that  there  was  a  great  development  of  each  of 
these  doctrines  in  the  Hebrew  mind,  in  the  five  hundred 
years  between  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
time  of  the  New.  The  question  is.  Did  their  knowledge 
of  the  Persians  contribute  to  this? 

The  fferra  of  the  whole  Christian  doctrine  is  in  the 
third  chapter  of  Genesis  ;  and  if  so,  of  course,  of  its 
doctrine  of  an  Evil  Being,  who  is  the  Adversary  of 
man.  That  chapter  is  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  spirit 
and  genius  of  the  Persian  idea  of  the  creation  of  the 
world,  in  which  was  involved   his  idea  of  the  oriojin  of 


AND  THE   HEBREW  EELIGIOIsS.  235 

evil.     It  follows  the  grandly  and  purely  monotheistic 
opening  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  where  each  th.ng  in 
Heaven  and  in  Earth  is  the  creation  of  one  God,  and 
each   and   all,   again   and  again,  is   pronounced  good. 
Into  this  good  world  evil  enters  in  the  gnise  of  a  ser- 
pent.    In  what  follows,  God  will  not  even  name  the 
Tempter.     His  words,  at  first,  see.n  only  to  and  of  the 
Serpent ;  and  the  personality  of  the  Spirit,  who  through 
this  medium  wrought  the  Fall  of  man,  is  manifest  only 
in  the  darkly  luminous  prophecy  of  enmity  between  his 
seed   and   the   seed  of  the  woman,   and  of  his  future 
destruction.     Compare  this  with  Zoroaster's  conception 
of  twin  Spirits -each  of  them  eternal,  each  a  Creator; 
one  of  whom  creates  the  good,  and  the  other  the  evil, 
of  the  world ;  which  is  essentially  the  same  heresy  that, 
in  a  later  age,  God  reproved  in  the  Persian  Cyrus   say- 
in.,  "I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else.     I  form 
the   lioht,    and   create   darkness.      I  make  peace,  and 
create°evil.     I,  the  Lord,  do  all  these  things." 

Or  compare  this  chapter  of  Genesis  with  the  state- 
ment of  Theopompus  of  Chios,  B.  C.  300,  preserved  by 
Plutarch,  that,  according  to  the  Magi,  two  hostile  Gods 
ruled  the  earth  for  successive  periods,   each  of  three 
thousand  years-  a  statement  that  substantially  appears 
in    the   "Bundehesh,"    an    authoritative    collection    ot 
Zoroastrian  traditions  made  subsequent  to  A.D.  226, 
the  date  of  the  later  kingdom  of  the  Persians,  and  of  a 
concurrent  revival  of  their  nationality  and  religion.     It 
will  thus  be  seen,  there  was  a  sharp  and  clear  difference 
and  opposition  of  ideas,  as  to  the  Evil  Spirit,  in  the 


236  RELATION    OF    THE    PERSIAN 

Hebrew  and  the  Persian  creeds,  even  from  the  earliest 
to  the  latest  hour  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion. 

It  may  be  said,  if  the  Persian  idea  of  the  Evil  Spirit 
was  so  different  from  the  Hebrew,  and  so  great  an 
error,  it  could  not  have  had  an  influence  for  good  on  the 
Hebrew  belief.  But  error  is  often  the  occasion  of  the 
development  of  Truth  ;  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  it  may 
have  been  in  this  case.  A  mysterious  allusion  there 
was  to  a  Deliverer  to  come,  in  words  of  God,  spoken 
not  to  man,  but  in  the  hearing  of  man,  in  the  hour  of 
his  ruin,  enkindling  a  great  and  sure  hope,  yet  without 
distinctness  of  form  ;  words  of  might,  since  spoken  by 
the  Almighty,  but  rather  to  be  cherished  in  the  musing 
and  believing  heart,  than  clear  to  the  intellect.  What- 
ever the  reason  why  the  knowledge  of  a  Redeemer  to 
come  was  veiled  in  the  enigma  of  the  words  in  which 
it  was  breathed  into  the  soul  of  the  Father  of  mankind, 
since  this  was  so,  there  would  have  been  no  wisdom  in 
the  bringing  out  niore  clearly  the  existence  of  the  Evil 
Spirit,  the  effect  of  whose  Tempting  was  an  ever-present 
evidence  of  his  being  and  power.  It  is  evidence  of  this, 
that,  almost  everywhere  throughout  the  primeval  world, 
there  was  a  worship  that  is  best  accounted  for  by  assum- 
ing that  it  grew  out  of  a  perverted  reminiscence,  even 
of  this  wisely  reticent  and  guarded  revelation  —  the 
worship  of  the  Snake,  the  low  medium  of  the  Dark 
Spirit.  Kor  would  it  have  become  the  tender  mercy 
and  lovin2;-kindness  of  the  Lord  to  the  children  of  the 
dust,  to  have  terrified  them  by  a  revelation  of  all  that 
might  have  been  made  known  of  the  power  and  might 


AND   THE    HEBREW   KELIGIONS.  237 

of  the  Adversary  of  the  Human  Soul,  so  long  as  the 
Being  who  was  to  destroy  him  could  not  be  made  mam-      . 
fast  °  But  the  reasons  for  this  reserve  ceased  when  the 
tendency  to  idolatry  was  dead  in  the  Hebrew  mind,  and 
was  dying  out  in  many  of  the  nations,  and  the  hearts  of 
the  pious  in  Israel  were  quickened  to  a  strong  and  clear 
belief  in  a  spiritual  Redeemer,  whose  coming  drew  n.gh. 
In  the  earliest  human  hour,  two  Antagonists,  whose 
field  is  the  world,  whose  prize  the  Human  Race,  are 
darkly  manifest.     When  in  the  fulness  of  time  all  that 
was  then  shadowed  forth,  and  all  the  truths  related  to 
it,  were  brought  to  light,  there  were  seen  mighty  and 
all-pervading  influences  in  the  Human  World  proceed- 
in.,  from  beings  not  of  flesh  and  blood  ;  and  Christ  the 
Lord  directing  those  influences  of  good,  overrulmg  those 
of  evil ;  while,  at  the  head  of  an  opposing  liost,  Satan 
contends,  with  ever  less  and  less  of  consequence,  agamst 
Him      The  human  history  and  the  soul  attest  to  these 
facts  as  revealed.     But  alike  in  the  limitations  of  the 
knowledge  of  Truth,  and  in  the  guarded,  gradual  un- 
folding of  it,  the  wisdom  of  God  is   only  less  adorable 
than  in  the  making  it  known.     Much  of  this  glory,  and 
therefore  of  this   darkness,  was  hidden  of  old.      ihe 
wisdom  and  mercy  of  God  would  not  permit  that  the 
dominion  of  the  Prince  of  this  World,  of  the  Pnnce  of 
the  Power  of  the  Air,  should  be  fully  manifest,  untd  the 
time  of  the  manifestation  of  Him  who  came  to  destroy 
the  works  of  the  Devil. 

The  dark  eminence  of  the  Evil  Spirit,  in  the  creed 
of  that  great  People  with  whom  the  relations  of   the 


238  RELATION  OF  THE  PERSIAN 

Hebrews  had  been  so  providential,  was  well  fitted,  as 
the  right  time  approached  for  the  full  unfolding  of  the 
true  doctrine  from  its  germ  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Genesis,  to  compel  the  Hebrews  to  search  out  more 
earnestly  than  ever  before,  and  to  appreciate  the  truth, 
as  it  was,  in  that  ancient  oracle. 

Angels  are  known  to  the  records  of  the  Hebrew 
religion  from  early  time ;  but  there  is  a  reticence  as  to 
them,  like  that  marked  before,  and,  it  may  be,  having 
a  like  cause.  What  the  Israelites  had,  first  of  all,  to 
learn  for  all  nations,  was  the  truth,  that  the  Lord  God 
was  one  Lord.  Too  early  a  development  among  them 
of  the  knowledo'e  of  the  existence  of  malis^nant  beincfs 
not  of  flesh  and  blood,  would  have  been  followed  by  a 
superstitious  and  idolatrous  worship  of  them,  that  would 
have  come  between  God  and  his  people,  even  more 
fatally  than  that  which  they  borrowed  from  the  nations 
around  them. 

The  reserve  as  to  the  Evil  Spirit  may  have  a  relation 
to  this  reserve  as  to  ans^elic  beinsfs.  If  the  orio-in  and 
much  of  the  presence  of  Evil  in  the  earth  be  attributed 
to  one  Being,  it  is  difficult  not  to  clothe  him  with  some- 
thing like  ubiquity  and  omnipresence,  and  so  to  make 
of  him  a  god  —  the  heresy  of  the  Persian  creed.  Tliere 
is  somethinor  of  safesruard  asfainst  this  in  the  idea  of  a 

o  o  o 

host  of  evil  spirits,  to  one  of  whom,  as  their  chief,  all 
that  is  done  by  them  all  is  attributed  ;  as  all  that  was 
done  by  his  million  of  soldiers  in  France,  in  Italy,  in 
Egypt,  in  Spain,  or  Russia,  is  ascribed  to  Napoleon. 
Thus  it  may  have  been  that  both  of  these  doctrines 
were  held  back,  and  both  brought  forward  together. 


AND    THE    HEBREW   RELIGIONS.  239 

The  idea  of  angels,  dimly  conceived  of  by  Zoro- 
aster, was  rapidly  and  fully  developed  in  the  Zoroastrian 
system  —  perhaps,  in  the  providence  of  God,  as  some 
counteractive  to  its  great  central  error ;  and  it  is  very 
probable  that,  through  the  influence  of  that  system,  the 
Hebrew  idea  of  angelic  worlds,  which,  however,  was  by 
no  means  identical  with  the  Persian,  reached  its  fulness. 
This  idea  attains  almost  to  certainty,  when,  in  the  Vis- 
ions of  Daniel,  angels  appear  w4th  names, — though 
these  are  pure  Hebrew,  —  and  with  gradations  of  rank, 
and  the  nations  are  under  their  watch  and  ward. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection  had  its  germ  in  the 
third  chapter  of  Genesis  ;  for  Death  to  the  soul  and 
the  body  having  followed  the  coming  of  the  mysterious 
Adversary  of  man,  life  to  both  will  assuredly  follow  the 
coming  of  the  mysterious  Friend  of  man.  This  hope 
arose  in  the  mind  of  the  pious  Israelite,  as,  believing  to 
the  fullest  in  the  word  and  power  of  God,  he  mused  on 
His  darklv-clear  lanouaoe  of  old  :  and  it  was  confirmed 
to  him  by  the  translation  of  Enoch  in  bodily  form  into 
the  heavens,  and  by  the  like  translation  of  the  prophet 
Elijah.  But  it  was  a  hope  that  had  no  definiteness  of 
time  or  form.  The  Persian  boldly  and  erroneously 
enlarged  the  primeval  doctrine.  He  first  conceived  of 
equal  gods ;  but,  happily  inconsistent  in  error,  made 
one  of  them  completely  triumphant  over  the  other,  and 
so  rushed  on  to  the  belief  in  his  complete  victory  over 
the  Grave.  Little  indeed  he  knew  throus^h  Whom  that 
victory  w^ould  be  won,  and  how  !  Still  there  was  some- 
thing that  was  right  and  true  in  his  thought ;   and  here, 


240  RELATION    OF    THE    PERSIAN 

as  before,  it  is  very  suggestive  of  an  influence  of  the 
Persian  upon  the  Hebrew  mind,  that  the  first  clear 
revelation  of  the  Resurrection,  although  there  are  some 
intimations  of  it  in  other  of  the  Prophets,  is  made  by 
the  Prophet  Daniel. 

That  he  taught  the  Persians,^  is  proved  by  the  Pil- 

^  The  belief  of  the  Persians  in  the  Resnrrectiou  was  known 
to  the  Greeks,  B.  C.  300.  It  is  in  the  Zendavesta.  It  is 
a  logical  sequence  of  its  leading  thoughts  ;  and  there  was  a 
sign  of  this  truth  in  the  primeval  world.  There  seems,  then, 
no  reason  for  referring  its  origin  or  development  among 
them  to  the  Hebrews.  Not  so  with  their  idea  of  the  So- 
siosh.  (See  page  92.)  This  may  have  had  its  source  far 
back  in  the  primeval  faith.  But  in  the  first  brief  allusion  to 
him,  he  is  born  out  of  the  water  Kacoya,  and  so  seems  a 
spirit  or  god  ;  in  the  second^  he  is  a  man.  This  is  remark- 
able, as  the  legend-forming  current  runs  the  other  way. 
Thus,  in  the  earliest  part  of  the  Zendavesta,  —  which,  on  this 
very  account,  is  to  be  received  as  historical,  —  Zoroaster  is 
a  teacher,  with  nothing  legendary  about  him.  Before  the 
end  of  the  growth  of  the  Zendavesta,  he  becomes  almost  a 
god  ;  and  many  are  the  strange  legends  told  of  him  by  later 
Parsees  —  such  as.  after  their  conversion  by  the  Arabs,  the 
Persians  told  of  Maliomet.  A  similar  development  would 
be  the  natural  one  of  their  idea  of  the  Sosiosh,  which,  as 
first  obscurely  uttered,  tends  that  way.  Probably  the  change 
in  it  was  wrought  by  the  influence  of  Daniel,  and  some  slight 
trace  of  a  likeness  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Messiah  thus  grafted 
into  the  Zendavesta.  Some  of  the  few  who  can  decipher 
that  book  think  it  older  than  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  judging 
from  the  language  of  the  Acha?meuian  inscriptions.  This 
must  be  accepted  for  the  present.  But  the  Magiau  Litera- 
ture grew  till  Alexander's  time  ;  and  sections  may  have 
been  added  to  this  book  under  the  Achiemenian  kings,  though 


AND    THE   HEBEEW    RELIGIONS.  241 

frrimaofe  of  Masfi  to  Jerusalem.  He  may  have  learned 
from  them.  If  they  had  any  reminiscences  or  intuitions 
of  truth  that  were  more  full  and  clear  than  they  were, 
at  that  time,  among  his  own  people,  this  would  have 
been  discerned  by  the  "man  of  Desires."^  His  the 
mind  to  understand,  his  the  heart  to  appreciate,  what- 
ever there  was  of  truth  in  the  religion  of  Ormazd. 
That  religion  had  its  origin  in  the  primeval  revelation. 
In  it  there  were  gleams  of  orient  light,  though  inter- 
mingled with  gross  darkness.  Veins  of  pure  water 
were  there,  though  bubbling  up  in  the  wide  and  stag- 
nant morass.  They  had  no  unintermitting  source,  no 
channel  to  keep  them  clean  and  clear  of  the  marsh,  no 
onward,  purifying  motion,  like  the  River  "the  streams 
whereof  make  glad  the  City  of  God  ; "  yet  the  Prophet's 
wand  may  have  called  forth  from  the  morass  waters  to 
swell  that  River.  He  who  saw  so  clearly  the  truth  of 
God  afar  off  in  the  ages  to  come,  may  have  seen  it  very 
nio^h  in  the  souls  of  those  amonsj  whom  his  lot  was  cast. 
Such  truth,  accredited  to  him  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  and 
by  it  freed  from  all  human  error,  he  may  have  com- 
mended to  his  own  people,  and  have  made  it  part  of  the 
everlasting  oracle  of  man. 

the  opinion  above  be  in  the  main  correct.  After  all,  the  idea 
of  the  Sosiosh  is  so  little  like  the  clear,  consistent  Prophetic 
prevision  of  the  Christ,  that  the  matter  is  of  little  importance. 
^  Daniel  ix.  23  ;  x.  11.  "  Thou  art  a  man  of  Desires," 
are  the  words  of  the  angel  to  Daniel,  accordiag  to  the  Mar- 
ginal Reading  in  the  English  Bible.  So,  too,  the  Vulgate  : 
"  Vir  desideriorum  es."  The  idea  seems  to  be  —  a  man  de- 
sirous to  know  all  truth. 


242  RELATION    OF   THE    PERSIAN 

Whether  hd  did  so  or  not  is  a  question  of  fact,  to  be 
settled,  if  it  can  be  settled  at  all,  by  its  appropriate 
evidence.  As  to  the  effect  of  that  evidence,  different 
minds  may  come  to  different  conclusions  ;  but  the  no- 
tion that  it  was  impossible,  because  it  v^ould  derogate 
from  Christianity,  comes  from  too  narrow  an  idea  of 
the  genesis  and  history  of  our  Eeligion. 

The  religion  that  was  before  the  Hebrews  were  — 
that  is  our  religion.  Great  truths  and  facts,  such  as 
the  Being  and  Spirituality  of  God ;  such  as  His  Crea- 
tion of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth  ;  the  unity  of  the 
Human  Race ;  the  temptation  by  the  Evil  One,  and 
the  Fall  of  Man ;  the  Redeemer  to  come ;  the  institu- 
tion of  Sacrifice,  with  all  that  is  implied  therein  ;  truths 
and  facts  of  higher  moment  than  the  illustrations  or 
confirmations  of  them  in  the  providence  of  God  towards 
the  Hebrews,  and  which  maybe  viewed  apart  from 
them  ;  —  these  truths  and  facts  are  the  substance  and 
soul  of  our  ancient  religion,  and  all  these  were  "before 
Abraham  was." 

So,  too,  were  many  holiest  men.  The  Priest  of  the 
Most  High  God,  the  mysterious  Melchizedec,  to  whom 
Abraham  paid  tithes,  was  not  a  Hebrew  ;  nor  was  Noah, 
who  brought  the  records  of  the  church  across  the  dis- 
severing Flood  ;  nor  Enoch,  whose  translation  Into  the 
Heavens  intimated  to  the  early  church  that  the  body 
might  share  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul;  nor  Abel, 
whose  sacrifice  prefigured  the  sacrifice  of  the  Lord  ;  nor 
Adam,  who  held  converse  with  GoD. 

The  Religion  which  built  the  first  altar  to  the  Living 


AND   THE    HEBREW    RELIGIOXS.  243 

and  only  GoD,  and  offered  the  first  sacrifice  after  the 
Flood,  embraced  all  then  on  the  earth,  and  from  them 
all  now  on  the  earth  have  sprung.  That  religion  every- 
where had  an  ally  in  the  conscience ;  and  doubtless  in 
every  nation  it  had  allies  in  some  who  listened  to  the 
divine  and  the  human  oracle.  Though  perverted,  cor-, 
rupted,  and  partially  forgotten,  yet  it  may  be  discerned 
as  an  element  in  the  religion  of  all  nations  —  in  some 
that  have  ceased  to  be,  and  in  those  that  are  :  nowhere 
have  its  traces  been  wholly  obliterated. 

The  Hebrews  received  this  universal,  primeval  reli- 
gion through  Abraham.  Among  them  it  was  fostered  by 
rites  and  ceremonies  that  made  them  a  peculiar  people, 
even  as  they  were,  in  some  periods  of  their  history, 
a  solitary  people.  It  was  preached  among  them  by 
inspired  prophets  and  teachers.  The  Lord  himself 
perfected  this  religion,  which,  before  Abraham's  day, 
he  had  instituted  among  men.  He  did  away  with 
all  that  in  it  was  local ;  made  that  which  in  it  was 
partial,  complete ;  established  that  which  in  it  was  uni- 
versal and  everlasting ;  and  commissioned  all  His  peo- 
ple everywhere  to  preach  throughout  all  the  world,  that 
this  fulness  of  Truth  by  Him  revealed  was,  and  was  to 
be  forever,  the  Keligion  of  mankind. 

The  Hebrews  were  chosen  of  God,  as  a  people,  to 
keep  for  us  the  Truth  that  w^as  of  old.  They  were 
chosen,  that  through  them  might  be  revealed  the  provi- 
dence and  government  of  the  Lord  in  the  earth,  and 
their  history  become  a  parable  of  instruction  to  all  na- 
tions through  all  time.     The  line  of  Abraham  and  the 


244  RELATION    OF   THE    PERSIAN 

house  of  David  were  chosen,  that  there  might  be  pre- 
pared a  fiimily  where  the  Holy  Child,  predicted  from 
the  beginning,  might  grow  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and 
in  favor  with  God  and  man,  when  unto  us  was  born 
the  Saviour,  who  is  Christ  the  Lord. 
,  The  truth  which  the  Hebrews  kept  for  us,  they 
regarded  as  truth  that  was  of  old,  and  as  truth  that 
was  for  all.  They  alone,  of  all  the  ancient  nations, 
faithfully  remembered  the  three  great,  inseparable  truths 
—  the  Unity  of  God,  the  Unity  of  the  World,  and  the 
Unity  of  the  Human  Race.  They  faithfully  registered 
the  chronicle  of  the  Dispersion  of  the  Nations.  The 
genealogy  of  their  family  was  a  branch  of  the  gene- 
alogy of  the  family  of  man.  They  felt  themselves  at 
one  with  all  the  people  of  God,  in  all  the  ages  be- 
fore they  were  a  people.  The  words  of  Moses,  as  his 
thoughts  ran  far  back  of  Abraham's  day,  and  past  even 
the  Flood,  till  they  lost  themselves  in  the  Everlasting 
Days  of  the  Beginning,  are,  "Lord,  thou  hast  been 
our  dwelling-place  in  all  generations." 

The  Hebrews  recognized  inspiration  in  Job ;  they 
recognized  inspiration  even  in  Balaam.  The  narrow- 
ness that  would  not  recognize  it  anywhere  was  no  part, 
of  the  character  of  the  Hebrews,  and  was  abhorrent  to 
the  spirit  of  their  religion.  The  First  Temple  was  built 
with  the  friendly  aid  of  Phoenician  Tyre  :  at  its  dedica- 
tion Solomon  prayed  for  the  stranger.  The  Second 
Temple  was  built  with  Persian  aid  :  in  that  Temple 
Simeon  spoke  of  the  Lord,  not  only  as  "  the  glory  of 
Israel,"  but  as  "a  liijht  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,"  and 


AND   THE    HEBREW   RELIGIONS.  245 

of  His  "salvation,"  as  "prepared  for  all  people."  St. 
Paul  recognized  an  element  of  truth  in  tlie  religion 
of  Athens,  and  made  the  words  of  one  of  the  Poets 
of  Greece  part  of  the  Divine  Oracle.  St.  Matthew 
recorded  the  homage  to  the  infant  Redeemer,  of  Sages 
from  a  foreign  land.  The  Lord  Himself  said,  He  had 
sheep  not  of  the  Hebrew  fold. 

Down  to  Abraham's  day,  the  truth  in  the  Bible  was 
not  of  Jewish  origin  on  its  human  side  ;  it  was  not 
wholly  so  afterwards.  Job,  in  whose  thoughts  and 
words  there  is  not  a  trace  of  the  Law  given  on  Mount 
Sinai,  was  not  a  Jew. 

The  Bible  is  not  a  Hebrew  Book.  The  Bible  is  the 
Book  of  Man.  It  is  a  divine  record  of  Truth  revealed 
before  Abraham's  day  —  Truth  which  it  pleased  God  to 
preserve,  through  the  children  of  Abraham,  free  from  all 
taint  of  their  sins  and  errors,  yet  made  more  clear  and 
impressive  by  those  sins  and  errors.  It  is  no  less 
glorious,  if,  on  its  human  side,  this  Truth  be  in  part 
Chaldean,  or  Egyptian,  or  Persian;  while  it  is  of  no 
consequence  as  to  its  authority,  since  it  reaches  us 
through  inspired  men,  free  from  its  corruptions  on  other 
lips,  and  pure  as  it  breathed  from  on  high. 


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BS2423.U67 

The  wise  men:  who  they  were;  and  how 

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